


Lindworm & the Tam Lin Love a Changling

by Vesperchan



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Sakura, Based on a Fairytale, Curse Breaker Sakura, Curses, Dragon Madara, F/M, Fae Hashirama, Fairy Tale Elements, Happy Ending, If you have two hands use them both, Lindworm, Magic, Multi, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tam Lin - Freeform, True Love, Tumblr, cause lets be real about everyone loving Sakura, changling, fae, fairytale, ot3 friendly, some one sided love from side characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-09-06 20:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20297383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: Sakura travels as a curse breaker across the land, doing what she can to put some peace back into the world. She doesn't think much of it when she breaks the curse on a lesser dragon or a fae knight, but maybe she should have.





	1. Lindworm (MadaSaku)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ataraxic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ataraxic/gifts).

> Originally Published on Tumblr as a gift for a friend ofhealinglove, I never intended this 'onshot' to turn into a two shot and then a three shot, but it sort of blew up and grew away from me. But here we are. It's about time I put this where people could more easily find it.

Once upon a time a queen fell into despair after many years of being unable to carry a child. Her kingdom was without an heir and her home devoid of sweet children. She was weeping in the garden when an old woman approached her, asking about her tears. When the queen told the old woman it was because she was barren the old woman held out a pair of pruning sheers.

“Go into your garden and you will find one red rose and one white rose. If you eat the white rose you will bear a girl, the red rose will give you a son, but be warned, you must only eat one of these roses, to devour both would be unwise.”

“The queen does as the old woman instructs and finds the roses in her garden. Thinking it over, the queen plucks the red rose and eats it, thinking of her future son. But then her heart begins to long for a daughter, and before she can remember the old woman’s warning, she devours the white rose as well.

“Nine months pass and soon comes the time for the queen to deliver her child. Heavy with child, she labors for many hours before she is able to push her child free, but a babe does not greet the midwives. With a roar like that of a fire’s, a lindworm slithers from her room and snakes out the window in wings of long leather. Following the worm, the queen discharges a healthy human boy, wailing in crying. The queen swears her midwives to secrecy and all is well in the land for seventeen and a half odd years.

But then the noble prince grows up and is taken with the heart for adventure of the most rewarding kind. He wishes to find a wife to make his heart sing. With his father’s blessing, he prepares to depart on such a journey when on the road the mighty dragon blocks their path. With the words of moral men the dragon demands a bride as is his birthright. The prince tries three more times, and the same even occurs. Bringing this news home, the queen finally breaks down and reveals her treachery. Yes, the monster is truly her son, and her first born. The young son may not marry until the eldest is taken with a bride.

The king sends for princess of far off kingdoms to please his worm son, but one after the other, they are eaten by the monster on their wedding night. Distraught and in a panic as to what they can do with their son, the king and queen begin kidnapping girls from nearby villages to wed to their son, praying one will break the curse and satisfy his desires.

“And that’s how I ended up here, isn’t it?” Sakura asked with a wicked smirk.

Staring wide eyed, the chancellor gaped openly for a good solid minute before recovering. Pushing his glasses up, the dark haired man squeaked. “Rumors being what they are, there is always exaggeration to be found-“

“Cut the bull, Iruka, I don’t buy it. Get to the point of what you wanted to say earlier.”

Iruka, to his credit, looked ashamed. “Beg your pardon, but I suspect the allure of marrying into royalty would not move you to give yourself over. I’m sorry, but you are the only one of our staff that does not have a father to speak for her. You’ve been with us only a month, but you’ve never had post or visitors and you don’t go into town. You won’t be…missed.”

Sakura frowned, crossing her arms over her chest and staring out to the side at the gardens she was tending. Her hands were dirty, and her dress was little more than rags fit for working in. She hadn’t tried to look nice in her new office of employment, in fact, she had purposely tied up her hair and kept it wrapped under and scarf so that no one would see it and remember her for it. She liked to remain unnoticed and be the person people forgot about first. It made travel from one place to another easy. 

At least, that’s how she felt when she was working on jobs. When she was freelancing, she was a whole other story.

“Do I have a choice in any of this, or are you going to seize me in the night and drag me gagged and bound before his highness?”

Iruka stuttered. “I-I am so sorry, my good lady. Isn’t there anything you might want? To live as a princess for even a day is more than some girls can hope for.”

“Ah,” Sakura mused, exaggerating the tapping of her chin in thought. “But it is only for _one_ day. To live for one more day, what would I trade for that?”

Iruka looked off to the side and Sakura followed his line of sight to the guards who patrolled back and forth on shifts that rotated ever four to six hours. Poor Iruka, to be the man who strong-arms the girls into this deadly fate.

“I guess there are some things I want. If the king will give these to me, I will consent and marry his worm of a son without complaint.”

“You will?” Iruka’s eyes were almost as wide as when she first recounted the story that had been so closely guarded. Not even the kitchen staff could speak or hear of it, and the kitchen staff knew nearly everything. “W-w-whatever you want, it is yours, the king will surly grant you your wish.”

Sakura held up three fingers. “First, I want seven dresses, each one a half a size larger than the last so that I might wear them all at once. These are the dresses I will wear on my wedding night so I can’t marry him until then. Secondly, on the night of our wedding, in the room where bride and groom consummate their vows, I want a copper basin filled with milk from a cow that is without spot or blemish.”

“Those are…” he struggled to find the words, “odd requests if ever I’ve heard them. What is the third thing you ask for?”

Sakura smiled, cheekily. “I’ll let the king know that myself, since it depends on how the night goes. Once my dresses are made, let me know and I will come for the prince, until then, leave me to work in the garden.”

“You don’t want a room fit for a princess?”

Sakura snorted, turning her back on Iruka and picking up the ho she had been using. In a simple move, she swung the ho out and buried its metal into the dirt. The lines in her back stood out, betraying the secret strength that coiled under her skin. She was a delicate looking creature, but Iruka suspected there was more to her than such a fragile frame. No one else thought to look twice at her, including him, but now he thought better of it. She was a tricky woman, one that set him off balance, and one he was all the better leaving to her own devices.

“I will leave you to your work then, my good lady,” he said with a nod, turning to let the king and queen know of his good news.

Once his footsteps were gone, Sakura paused in her labor to observe her work. The garden was mostly bare, having suffered a harsh winter that killed off most everything it had to boast of. Sakura was one of the handful of flora experts that had been hired to bring beauty back to the last of their seventeen gardens. 

“I think I will miss this place, or at least miss seeing what comes out of so many labors,” she mused aloud.

Not too far away, she heard the loud cheer of a rabble from the stables, followed by a horse neighing. Seconds latter a sharp cheer rose up swift on the heels of a cracking noise, like hooves pounding through wood. Sakura stood up when a few of the worked in the garden over to her gasped and whispered among themselves. Rounding around the side of the castle, the youngest prince rode an unsaddled mare that was bucking more than it was running.

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. After the queen gave birth to her twins, she had produced a third son several years later that had turned out to be a royal brat in all the ways his elder brother wasn’t. Sakura had only heard him a handful of times and seen him from a far, but she could make out enough from what she heard from the staff to know that he was a spoiled brat who liked to show off. Riding his big brother’s wild mare was just the latests of his misadventures.

“You would think they would take better care of the second son,” one of the workers muttered with a dismissive nod, not knowing that the second son was really the third son.

Another worker laughed. “Ha, they would have more luck putting reigns on that set of hooves out there than the ice prince himself.”

A young girl looked up sharply when she heard the others laughing about the prince. With cheeks red she sputtered out a rebuttal. “Don’t speak of prince Sasuke that way! He’s the king’s son.”

The other workers only laughed harder, poking fun at the prince even more for all his silly little fan girls. Their laughter cut out quickly enough when a second figure emerged form around the castle on horseback. Itachi, the elder brother of Sasuke was racing after the little prince on a lesser steed he had tamed a few seasons back. Drawing up parallel to the wild mare, he lifted his brother off the horse and pressed him to his chest, letting the horse run off.

Feeling bad for watching the scene any longer, the other workers turned back to their labors, pretending they were more into it then they really were. Though the young girl kept her eyes upwards, watching as the enchanting black haired prince of the house of Fans rode back with his little brother on his lap. If it hadn’t been for the girl’s distracted gazing, Sakura might not have noticed the wild steed until it was too late. The young girl screamed in terror, seeing the mare racing towards them with froth and foam in her mouth. Cursing, Sakura threw down her ho and rushed to the girl, pushing her down into the mud and out of the wild beast’s path as it barreled through the unmade garden.

Nearly run over herself, Sakura scrabbled back up and ran back to stand where she was adequately exposed. Whistling a few old notes under her breath, she held her hands over her head and waved them to get the horse’s attention. The mare charged at her again, but this time Sakura was ready to side step it, grabbing it’s loose halter and pulling hard. The mare pulled and cried, protesting with kicks and jumps that shook the earth around them. Sakura saw the two tone color in his mane and cursed again. This mare was of the fey, it was unwise for a prince to try and tame it, even if such a thing had been done in the past.

Sakura pulled the mare closer to her and reached out with her hands to trace the counter curses along the veins in the wild animal’s skin, whispering old words and older songs under her breath until the beast settled down.

“Sakura?” the girl gasped, sitting up slowly.

“He must have just been startled, poor thing. She’s as tame as a lamb now,” Sakura laughed, letting go of the horse and smacking his rear. The mare huffed and began to trot back to the stables.

The girl from before pick up Sakura’s gardening tool and held it out. Sakura took it, glancing up to see the first prince Itachi watching her from where he sat atop his own horse, having deposited Sasuke earlier. Shrugging, Sakura turned her back to the prince and continued to work.

It took seven days to make the dresses, but eight to find the cows she wanted the milk from. Finding one such cow was not too difficult, but finding enough to fill a basin with milk was a different story. The king ended up needing six such cows, and had to pay a penny to procure the last two. He wasn’t happy about that, but he wouldn’t dare complain as he knew he was sending an innocent young maiden to her death.

Instead of a crown of jewels, Sakura braided flowers into her hair and wore a simple white dress for the marriage ceremony. They offered her nicer things, but she shook her head and pushed them away, knowing she had everything she needed.

They led her into a large hall and it was there that she caught her first gimps of the terror know as Madara. He was a great black thing with scales that shone with the captured fragments of a winter’s midnight. To his credit, the holy man did not shake or stutter as he read off their vows, and Sakura saw no reason to ignore his example, so she held herself like stone as the lind-worm watched her unwaveringly.

The ceremony was short and sweet, without rings and kisses. A few short words later, and they were joined as husband and wife. Hearing the Bible close, Madara pulled himself out of the room and took flight to nest in the tower that would be their wedding chambers. Though he was massive, he was a lind-worm, which is a lesser dragon that is much thinner and able to slither due to their lack of body mass. He was as silent as the night, and twice as threatening.

Before Sakura stepped down from the platform to follow her husband’s example the holy man caught her elbow. “You are a brave girl, don’t forget that,” he whispered.

Sakura only smiled, before leaving to dress in her seven dresses and meet the worm prince head on. The doors to the rooms all the way up to the tower stayed firmly closed, though she could feel the eyes peering out at her from the cracks and keyholes, trying to get a eyeful of the latest girl to moisten the first prince’s throat. Though one door remained opened, the figure inside easy enough to spot.

“Hello brother,” Sakura laughed, looking Itachi up and down. “Have you come to bid me goodnight?”

The tall Uchiha prince frowned, the natural contour of his perfect face no lessened in its beauty for his expression. Sakura decided she liked his face, for no other reason then his ruby eyes. They were barely red, more black than anything, but she could see the magic colors dancing round his pupil.

The prince hung his head in a sorrowful bow. “I’m sorry you had to go through this. I’m ashamed of what my family has asked of you. I don’t expect you to forgive us.”

Sakura laughed behind tight lips, trying not to seem to giddy, least he think her nervous and pity her more. “You’re awfully adorable when you hang your head, dear brother. Don’t ever feel the need to do so in the future, girls might get ideas.”

Itachi narrowed his eyes, but not in the intimidating ways. “You are not like the others.”

“Never,” Sakura said, turning from him and climbing the last few stairs.

There was a golden glow that seeped out from underneath the cracks in the door. When she pushed back the wooden door, she found the room bathed in a honey light. Madara turned from the fire to stare at her once more, his eyes hungry.

“You have changed, my wife.” He lifted his head up off the floor a bit. “I think I miss the flowers.”

Ignoring his banter, she looked to the side and saw the copper tub filled with the milk she asked for. Ice chips floated across the surface, keeping it cold.

“You should have let me know earlier, and I would have left them in.” Sakura reached up and ran a few fingers though what she could of her bangs. The rest of her hair had been swept back and braided into a crown that was easy to weave flowers into. Now it seemed messier, but no less enchanting. 

Madara made a rumbling through deep in his chest, it sounded like thunder when it was nothing more than his laughter. “You are more enjoyable to talk to than the others. You don’t stutter or mew like vermin at the sight of me.”

“Does that make me less tasty?” Sakura asked with a toothy smile, hands on her hips.

Madara didn’t reply, but laughed again. Once he had settled down, he stretched out his face towards her. “My name is Madara Uchiha, the first born.”

“I know that,” Sakura replied, reaching out to touch the soft leather of his nose. “My name is Sakura, by the way. But, you probably knew that. What did they tell you about me, nothing terrible I hope?”

Madara turned his face towards her touch, letting the taunt places in his body go loose and easy, like a cat being groomed. “They never tell me anything. No one talks to me, never like this, at least. You work in the gardens.” He looked to her hair, at the paced where the flowers would have been. “I would have liked to have seen you working there more, but they do not want me out in the open when the sun is up, or ever if they can help it. You can understand their concern.”

“Of course,” Sakura said, still tracing patterns across the soft velvet of his nose. He seemed to enjoy it. “All the same, you’re not missing much. Sometimes I don’t believe the world is half worth exploring if you’re going out to explore it alone. I’m terrible about that. You wouldn’t believe how much I hate going on long trips by myself.”

“And yet you came to my father’s house alone.”

Sakura snickered. “What can I say? I live a terrible life. No one wants to travel with me and I have no such friends to adventure with.”

After a while he spoke again. “You are not like the others. I think I like you.”

“That’s an important point, considering we’re married and all.”

The lesser dragon made a sad sound in the back of his throat. “Not so, seeing as how I will be forced to devour you all the same when you and I can not match one another as husband and wife. I will be saddened with you gone, I think.”

Sakura stopped stroking his nose, leaving him to whine about it, and stood in front of his eye, which was as big as one of her hands. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself, big guy. Haven’t you heard the expression, don’t count your chickens before they hatch?”

Madara stirred, pulling his head back a little to stare at her more fully.

“Wife, will you shed your dress?”

Sakura smiled, hands paused above the hem of her first dress. Her eyes gleamed with mischief. Then, speaking with authority, she countered his offer. “Husband, shed your skin.”

Madara drew up, hissing. “No one has asked that of me before,” he breathed.

“I ask it of you now,” Sakura said, her voice taking on a deeper echo as she spoke the words like a fey spoke the notes to an enchantment.

Not knowing how to resist, Madara began to claw away and his skin, tearing scale from scale and flesh from flesh till his molted hide sank to the floor around him. Sakura pulled the first of her dresses over her head and laid it atop the shed skin with a witty smile.

Madara was panting a bit. “Fair wife, shed a dress.”

“Husband, shed a skin.”

With reserve, Madara huffed and began to tear away at his body, screaming in his own way as the first signs of blood began to show. When the skin fell the to floor, Sakura removed her dress and laid it atop the pile.

“Lovely wife, shed for me a dress.”

“Madara, shed a skin.”

The screaming grew louder.

Once more Madara asked her to undress, and same as before, Sakura commanded him to shed his skin, knowing he would be compelled all the seven times she asked it of him until she was down to her last dress. On his last skin, Madara roared and the bleeding was quick and his entire body concave-ed in on itself, shrinking and shriveling till he was man sized again, but not quite man formed.

Sakura reached for his body and dragged him to the tub of pure milk, where the final membrane of his body began to hiss and melt away. He snarled and thrashed his human hands, but Sakura held him down, putting all the good old muscles of her back to use. He bucked like a wild horse, but Sakura knew the words to sooth him and traced the patters of his life backwards against the veins in his skin. The curse was strong as it clung to him, but Sakura was stronger.

She whispered promises in his ears and pulled him to her chest. “I won’t let you go, you’re safe now, I won’t let it take you back. Evil things wont touch you. I’m here now. Listen to my voice. I’m here.”

She could feel the resistance building up under her arms as the last waves of the enchantment began to break and her grip weakened. She stressed a bit, loosing her breath as she remembered how important it was for her to hold onto him at this stage. Holding on to the ones who shift and change through magic is some of the strangest healing in the world, but it is a sacred healing that reflect one human’s desire for another’s well being. Funny, how Sakura never thought she would ever be in such a position where she would have to hold a man all the way through his transformation.

Then with a great breath Madara collapsed in her arms, his energies spent, and the curse finally broken. She watched as the final white layer fell from his body like dehydrated scales, showing off his pale face and dark black hair. Even as a worm he had been beautiful in his own way. Now human, he was finally something girls would call handsome.

Being limp and weak, Sakura dragged the man from the tub to the bed where she wrapped him in thick robes and then tucked him under their covers. He shivered, still cold from the near frozen milk and unable to open his eyes.

She traced the patterns in his skin backwards and forwards, teaching him the feeling of her fingerprints on his new human flesh. He moved towards her touch and her warmth, hungry for those promises and her words of reassurance. Finally, he was able to crack open his eyes, though he was still weak.

Sakura couldn’t help but smile. She knew Itachi was a terribly handsome man, and even Sasuke was a sight to behold as far as youths went, but Madara was something else. He was still dangerous in his wild hair and magic stained eyes, the same as Itachi’s. Even someone as brave as Sakura felt tempted to stay staring at his face for ages. He was a work of art.

“My wife,” he breathed, trying to raise a hand to reach her.

She smoothed his arms down, keeping him in bed. Kissing the crown of his head, she whispered words for good dreams and stood, leaving him to the rest he needed. But even in sleep, his lips still moved, whispering the same words.

_My wife, my wife, my wife._

* * *

Left in her nightgown, Sakura sighed and crossed the room to the tapestry hanging from the wall and pulled it back. There was a door there that was already partly open. “You can come out now, your highness…or should I say, father?”

The king emerged from his hiding place a moment later, dressed in dark robes that hid him in darkness well enough. He looked nervously around, expecting to see leathery wings or curling scales, but found an emptiness instead. Then he eyes found the skin piles and he gasped.

Sighing, Sakura took him by the elbow and let him to where he could see Madara in the bed, perfectly human and more beautiful than anyone could have imagined after seeing him as a giant worm.

“Happy?” she asked with an amused undertone. The king could only mutely nod, scarily believing it. Sakura was beginning to wonder when she would get used to these sort of reactions, if ever.

“So yeah, about that third request you said you would grant me…”

Numbly, he handed her the papers. “Truly, I could never dare believe such a thing would happen when you asked for an annulment to the marriage after your first night.” He took a step towards Madara and stopped. “This is more than I could ever ask for.”

Sakura nodded, storing the papers in a pocket sewn into the side of her nightgown. “Yeah, great, I’m happy for you. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be packing up. You’ll have your hands full teaching him how to eat with forks and knives and what not, so I’ll leave you to that as well. Heh, at this rate, you’ll have three sons looking for wives on their own, right?”

It was better this way, of course he would see that.

The king swallowed, finding his throat dry all of a sudden. Glancing sideways at the woman who didn’t seem a bit tired after wrestling a human out of a monster he searched for a clue to her greater identity. Finding none he spoke up. “Who are you?”

“I told you, my name’s Sakura. But I’m no one of consequence here in a land where you fold your steel into such tiny swords. I should get back to where I come from. I’m sorry, but it looks like I won’t be here to finish off your garden for you along with the others you employed.” Sakura fingered her nightgown. “But, before I go, I’ll do you one more favor. There’s a horse in your stable that wants to kill your sons. If you let Itachi keep it and if he tries to tame it, I can’t see there being a happy ending to his story. You shouldn’t take things from the fair folk, they’ll come and take things from you in return.”

The King turned away from his son and stared Sakura dead in the eye. “I don’t think you’re completely human.”

Ah, and there it was. Without breaking eye contact, Sakura undid the first few buttons of her nightgown and pulled it apart to show off the white handprint that stood out like a burn against her peachy skin. A white hand, one of the blameless had touched her, and his mark still remained. The king’s eyes widened in recognition. He was probably more thankful for the annulment than she was, now that he knew what made her so different. Poor peasants didn’t want their sons looking at girls like her in most villages, why would a king be any less prejudiced against a race of beings so feared?

He didn’t say anything, so Sakura closed her nightgown and forced a smile. “I take my leave then.”

* * *

Ducking her head, she stole out the way he had entered, through the secret passageway that twisted round the servant’s quarters. She moved through the darkness like she was a part of it, hating how the windows in the walls let the moon hit her face as she passed their openings. She didn’t feel like pretending to be nonchalant or faking a smile should someone pass her in the hallways. There was a room at the end of the maid’s quarters where all the female gardeners were resting. Their rooms were small, but at least they were privet enough. Sakura didn’t like the idea of having to explain to someone else where she had been this whole time.

There was a small locked sea trunk at the foot of her bed that she went to first. Unclasping the lock, she pushed back the lid and reached inside, pulling out the eggshell white under-layers that fit her like a second skin. Next came her white gold armor, delicate and polished for lethal killings, she didn’t dare travel with it anywhere other than on her body. It was likely worth more than a small kingdom, considering the price of the inscriptions cared on the backside of the breastplate, gauntlets and shin guards. Suited up, she pulled out a long green cloak that had seen so many miles of road its luster had faded to a dull murk that helper her seem like just another bit of the earth and not someone worth stealing from.

From inside the pocket of her cloak fell two little figurines, one made of clan and the other of wood.

“Oh,” she cried, reaching to lift them from the stone floor and inspect them for injuries. The clay figurine was a small bird with delicate wings, while the wood doll was a scorpion with too many joints to his tail, making him somewhat movable as he dangled from her fingers. “I’m sorry for dropping you,” she breathed, knowing it was silly to talk to inanimate objects.

Still, they were precious gifts from an elder of her race that had been kind to her as she studied under the old woman one summer. Sakura had supposedly been sent to learn stronger magic, but she much preferred the old woman’s poetry, choosing to spend most of her time there indulging in the creative arts instead of the mystic arts.

‘So you won’t be alone on your long travels,’ the old woman explained after gifting the figurines to her.

Throwing a long sleeved tunic on over her armor, Sakura donned her cloak and pocketed the two figurines inside one of the pockets./

She was out before they could miss her, and stealing across the plains to the stable where all the new or untrained horses were kept. She found the wild mare from a week ago and called out to it, waking it from its sleep.

“Ah yes, those are the eyes I was looking for,” Sakura breathed aloud, unfastening the door and reaching in to tug on its lead. Pulling him outside, she slide the rope off his face and tossed it back into the barn, not caring how haphazardly it landed. The horse turned back towards her, but Sakura smacked the mare on the rear and yelled at it to run. The wild thing didn’t need to be told twice. And like the steed, Sakura too, tore off into the night.

* * *

When Madara awoke the next morning, it was closer to noon and the room was busy with people. His head swam with stars and he thought he might vomit, but the feeling passed after nary a moment. Deciding not to move, Madara groaned and rubbed his eyes. One of the chambermaids squeaked in delight and ran to hug her friend before they were ushered out by Iruka.

“Go, tell him his son has finally woken up.”

Madara turned to look towards the window, but the sunlight was stabbed. He growled but Iruka didn’t pull the curtains back. “God, are you trying to kill me?” he breathed in exasperation. He mentally chuckled when he thought about how likely that might be. Of course people would be out there wanting to kill him for all the ladies he ate while a monster.

“Rest easy, your father will be here in a minute.”

Madara huffed, hating the sound of someone like his father coming to visit him. What was that old man thinking, calling himself a father when nothing but the ancient traditions kept him from killing his cursed son and pretending the enchantment had never happened in the first place? After learning of it, the king had done as much as he could to rid himself of the thought of such a disgraceful son and Madara felt the weight of the old man’s disgust day after day. The only thing the old man was good for was finding him wives, or one wife. One was all he needed.

Madara felt his face heat up at the memory of the night previous, at the feeling of her fingertips across his skin. His wife, his courageous, charming angel of a wife.

He reached over in his bed to feel for her, only to touch empty sheets. The opposite side of his bed was void and cold. The sheets were neatly pressed, as if no one had slept in them all night. His heart hammered out of place for a moment as he sat up and searched the room. Her copper wash tub had been taken away, as well as all his skins and the dresses sandwiched in between each layer. All evidence of their night had been removed.

“Where is she?” Madara breathed aloud, sounding pained even in his own ears. He couldn’t understand why his chest was hurting as terribly as it was. He thought he might die all over again.

“Your father is on his way here right now,” Iruka said, sounding just as terrified as he had been when he looked on Madara as a serpent and not a man. “He will surly be-“

“My wife!” Madara bellowed, slamming his fists down on either side of him, making the bed tremble. What did he care for his father when she was missing from his side? If she wasn’t here, where was she?

“Enough of that now.”

Madara’s slit eyes shot over to the doorway where his father was walking through. Swallowing his voice, Iruka bowed ad backed out of the room, leaving father and son alone. As soon as the doors sealed, the king allowed himself a smile.

“I am glad to see you awake at last and with no major disagreements to your physical form. I had feared she would have crippled or blinded you in spite, but you appear fine.”

“Where is she? Where has she gone? Where is my wife?” Madara asked, ignoring everything about his father. The feeling of hurt and dread only grew deeper and wider in his soul.

The king frowned, pulling out a piece of paper. “She’s not you wife, anymore. I had the priest annul the marriage after I saw that you were human at last and able to choose for yourself a bride who might not have been willing to marry you as a worm. Wherever that woman is now I care not to know.”

Madara ripped the letter from his father’s hands and scanned it for lies. But at the end was the signature of his father and the priest. His father had signed with the crest of their kingdom, making it as binding as anything else.

This was the last remnant of Sakura left to him. With his free hand, Madara reached out towards the cold side of his bed with the made up sheets.

Still empty.

“You drove her away from me.”

“Hardly,” the king snorted. “That woman knew her place well enough. She asked for this before agreeing to the whole deal. I didn’t think I would need to use it, but she was a surprise, now, wasn’t she?”

“No, she…she wouldn’t have gone through all of that for no reason. That doesn’t make any sense.” He could still feel her fingers tracing backwards across his veins, whispering promises and sweet words in his ears. The heat of her arms as she bound him to herself, holding him fast in spite of his wild thrashing and the wilder magic. That sort of trial wasn’t endured for no reason, and not for just anyone. No, a person couldn’t go through something like that for a person she didn’t care for.

The king sighed, seemingly unamused with the innocence of his eldest son. “She was not human. If you still insist on confusing her image with that of a pure maiden, it will only be harder in the end. She was one of those changelings, children abducted by the fey and taught their ways. It was obligation on her part. I would hope she does what she does as a way of repaying her debt to society. Who knows, maybe it was her fay family who cursed you after all.”

Madara’s eyes darkened suddenly. “This wasn’t a Fey curse, father. If you would recall correctly, mother was the one who asked for help and the fey were the ones that offered it. It was your wife who broke the rule caused this all.”

“Hardly. They knew this would happen, it was all planned from the very beginning.” 

This wasn’t happening. It had been brief, but it had been long enough for Madara to fall in love and dream up a future the two of them could share. He imagined waking up next to her, of holding her for warmth on cold mornings and colder nights. That was the reason he had human arms, wasn’t it, so that he could loved ones close? He imagined her smile, her laugh, her face in sleep on the pillow next to hi

Squeezing his eyes shut he though back and tried to hold the memory of her face in his mind. She was so sure of herself, but not haughty. That was how you could see true wisdom in a person. She had eyes that were full of knowledge but also empty at the same time. 

He liked that about her, almost as much as he liked the sound of her voice as she soothed him to sleep. Her songs were enchantments to his ears, and he fancied himself being able to learn a few for her own benefit one day. He rather liked the idea of singing to her until she fell asleep in his arms. That was why he had a human mouth now.

“I’m going to find her, to bring her back to me,” Madara growled, pushing back the sheets and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. He tried to push off and stand but his legs gave out right away. Growling, he clawed at the floor and forced his legs to work again.

“What are you doing?” His father shouted. The tone of the king was one of utter disgust. “You can’t be serious. Get back into bed and let the healers tend to you. That child is gone.” 

“Where!?” It was more demand than question as Madara stood again and fell once more. He struck the floor with his fist. “Where?”

But when he looked up again his father was gone, having fled the room with fear when the supports shook. Madara was no longer a lindworm, but a part of him was still monster.

Growling to himself, he vowed he would not stay where he was. He would recover, he would heal and grow a strong human body he could use. And once he was ready he would run after her. He would hunt her down and he would find her without fail. He would take her back and destroy the contracts that nullified their marriage right in front of her face. She would know she was wanted and never have to run again.

Madara stood and then he fell.

Madara stood.

Madara fell.

Madara stood.

Madara stood.


	2. Tam Lin

Sakura rolled the bead shaped pebble under her toe back and forth, feeling but not seeing it. Her eyes were hazy and unfocused as she stared into the amber liquid of her drink. Half of it was gone but it felt like if she tipped it over the beer would flow forever. She was already light from it.

There was a shadow that passed over her and then the seat across from her creaked from the weight of the visitor. She lifted her eyes and blinked until the vision in front of her came into focus. What she saw made her grin out of the side of her mouth.

“Oh, I had heard the royal brothers of a far off land were visiting to court the sisters of whirlpool, but I didn’t think I would see one here in this little hole in the wall.”

Sakura blinked and looked up at the window to the outside. She could see the sign hanging but couldn’t remember what the words meant. Her vision was blurred and she had to blink again to see better.

“He’s been looking for you. Have you heard?” Itachi asked.

“Hmm?”

Sakura blinked and kept her eyes closed while she adjusted her posture in the seat. The places where her skin was stitched back together were all still sore. Not even a single one felt better and it had been days. She always healed slower during the New Moon nights. 

“It’s the whole reason we’re out here this far, since there was some business concerning children going missing near the moors. One of the wise women said it was fair folk business and that’s all he needed to hear.”

“Kelpie aren’t fair folk, technically speaking. They’re beasts… sentient beasts, but they just want to eat pretty tasty things.” Sakura’s eyes couldn’t focus and she felt the pebble crack under her toe when she sat up again. “But that’s beside the point, because the moors are plenty of miles west of here and there are a dozen different bars like this one you could have wandered into. What are you doing here?”

“Fifteen.”

She blinked. “What?”

“There are fifteen bars of this par and quality in the city. I’ve been to all of them.”

Sakura hummed. “I thought it was odd that all the princes were going out together to do this courting business like a big happy family, but I can guess better now. You’re the brains, aren’t you? Madara isn’t stupid but he’s sheltered, which is sometimes worse. He wouldn’t know how to find a person without his nose.”

Itachi reached out and grabbed a tankard off the tray that passed him by and when the table maid turned to tell him off he smiled and flashed her a silver coin she took with a blush and a stutter.

“He misses you terribly. Finding you again is all he seems interested in getting out of bed for. He’s turning out to not be what father hoped.”

Sakura raised a finger. “Let me stop you there and read your mind. Ah, the king blames me for that, does he. He says I bewitched or cursed his son and that it’s _alllllllll_ my fault. How’s that?” 

Itachi sipped at his drink without turning his nose up at it, but set it aside after only a mouthful. “You’re not far off but he has no one to blame for how things went. I don’t blame my brother. He’s had so little kindness in his life it is not hard to believe he’d want to covet what little he’s tasted.”

Sakura swallowed, glancing towards the bar door. It wasn’t busy inside and she could see clearly and easily all the way to the front and back exit. She reached inside her cloak where the shadows were heaviest and pulled out some berries still on the twig. She popped a few into her drink and then knocked the whole tankard back.

“What was that?” Itachi asked.

“Is Madara on his way here?” Sakura countered.

“Maybe. It depends on how fast Sasuke can get to him.”

Sakura hummed and pushed her tankard across the table. “Sorry, but I need to leave. I don’t dislike your brother, but this and that aren’t things worth speaking about. I’m not ready for someone to think so well of me, and I’m afraid of what sort of terrible things he would see if he stayed too long or too close.” She smiled playfully. “Tell him to move on.”

“You think it would be that bad?” Itachi braced to stand but staggered, falling back into his seat. His eyes went wide. “What?”

“It’ll last only a few minutes but the more you fight it the longer it will last. Don’t fret, the effects aren’t long lasting at all.”

Itachi looked at the twig left bare on the table and then the pair of tankards. Sakura made a clucking note and he stared up at her.

“You put something in my drink,” he gasped.

“Nope, just mine, but it was an antidote to the toxin we were both exposed to when I crushed a hag berry under the table. I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to stop running.” 

Sakura turned towards the back door and stopped when the pain in her side made her gasp. She covered it with a chuckle and shook her head. Her eyes still swam fuzzy and she could smell her blood in places the shadows clung darkest. She turned and headed for the front entrance, staggering like the other drunks with a sloppy smile.

“Sakura, don’t do this. He’s not the sort of person that will give up.”

Something about the tone of his voice made her turn, hand on the doorframe, ready to leave. She looked back and smiled sadly, believing every word. “I know. I’m still sorry. There are many more miles I need to go before I am done.”

“Done with what? We can help you if you are in trouble with someone.”

Sakura laughed. “I doubt that. Tell your beautiful brother what you need to. Say I was with another man, or two or three, I’m a harlot that doesn’t love. Tell him I have money problems and I used him. Say what you need to, just don’t tell him to keep searching because that will only hurt him longer.” 

She pulled the cloak’s hood down and stumbled out of the bar and into the shadows between streets and buildings.

The morbid part of her that liked to press her bruises until the pressure made them sting stopped and dominated her in that instant. She turned and looked back, watching as a pair of brothers too pretty to be peasants raced down the street. Madara passed the Dancing Pig pub, but Sasuke had to yell at him to turn back and Madara cursed about having to scramble. When he turned Sakura saw his face.

It hurt worse than any bruise.

“This is what you wanted, idiot,” she said to herself, backing away and drawing her cloak closer. She hurt all over and only half of the pain was from the bleeding bits of flesh. 

* * *

The bites weren’t healing and she couldn’t wait for the full moon when they sapped her so much each day. She applied what she knew of medicines to closing the wounds and healing the sites, but Kelpis were terribly good at death curses. She would need something specific.

The stone at the end of her necklace tugged her down the old road that had been well worn maybe half a century ago, but not so recently. The locals spoke of Carter Hall like it was a haunted thing and Sakura was willing to believe them if she was heading there. She needed a double headed red or white rose and wasn’t willing to hike another hundred miles in the opposite direction.

She dropped the stone back to her chest and let it rest there, tugging her along as she pulled her skirts up over her knee to keep the branches and twigs from taring through her.

She saw the edges of the outer wall over the treetops and pressed on. More and more of the modest castle emerged from the brush, looking as old and worn as the rest of the road. Sakura could smell the roses and knew she was closer at last. She had walked too far to _not_ be close by now.

When she staggered the leaves came away red.

There was an old wooden door that was broken in so many places it swung with the lightest of touches. She stepped over the grassy threshold and let the broken door swing open and hit the wall behind her. There was no one else around the hear the sound.

Sakura saw heavy bushes blooming and full with roses, but ignored the sight of them all to follow the tug around her neck. It would take her hours to look through all the roses until she founded what she wanted, but her stone led her right to where she needed to go, around the bend of a tower’s curve. Sakura had to climb up fallen debris long overgrown with weed and grass, but in the gapping hole in the tower’s side there was a monsters bush heavy with bloom. Each rose was as red as her blood.

White roses were better for bones and red for blood, so she was lucky.

Sakura reached into the thicket of thorns and grabbed at the double headed rose to tug it free.

“Stop!”

She whirled around, eyes going wide to soak up the surroundings for something she must have missed. Her eyes landed on the figure of a man, heading for her with the footsteps of a ghost.

Her eyes narrowed when she noticed the other elven features and gripped the thorny stem tighter in her hand, never minding the prick of thorns.

“Do not pull that double rose,” he said while reaching for her with one hand. “Lady, pull no more.”

Sakura raised a hand of her own and he stopped when he saw the palm. She watched as he licked his lips, panting from the jog.

“Who are you and where did you come from?” she asked. 

“I am the master of Carter Hall. Who are you to come and go as you please throughout my lands?”

“I come and I go by my own leave, good lord, and it need not be on your will.” Sakura angled her chin up to stare down at the man below her, left at the base of the rubble she had climbed earlier. “And no one has claimed these lands in ages. They’re supposedly haunted.”

“I assure you, that is not the case. Please, release the double rose.”

Sakura tugged it out a little more, closer to herself and narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

He almost looked nervous, but his voice didn’t shake when he spoke. “It is a piece of my property and I wish it to remain where it was placed. I need no further justification than that.”

Sakura tugged it a little more. “Wanna try that again?”

“Haunted, it may not be, but Carter Hall may still yet be a place of ill to those who do not fear or respect it. Release the rose. You know not what you do.”

Sakura yanked hard and the rose came away with a snap. The man cried out, reaching for her as he ascended the first step with hands outstretched. Magic screeched out from the place where the stem was ripped and Sakura felt her handprint throb with it, but after all she had been through, the _**Rebuke**_ was little more than a breeze to her. At the very least it didn’t stop her from drawing her sword in her free hand and holding it across her chest as the man climbed up onto her rubble perch.

“You…” he breathed on a note of awe. “You are well still.”

“Funny how that happens. Are you going to leave me well or do I have to use this?” Sakura asked while shaking her sword.

“Not on me, I dare say.” He smiled at her and it was so disarming it made her flinch. “I am glad to see you are not taken with illness. Speak your name, lady.”

“Not until you tell me yours, stranger.”

“I am Hashirama, the Lord of Carter Hall and the Tam Lim to these lands.”

Sakura swore under her breath and dropped her sword a little more. “No wonder you sound like something from my grandfather’s youth.”

She didn’t bother asking how long he had been a Tam Lin, since the decay of the castle told her enough on its own. He had probably been cursed by a fairy queen over a hundred years ago by the look of things.

“And your name, lady. Pray speak it.”

He took a hesitant step closer to her, careful not to draw too close and be perceived as threatening. 

“You can call me Sakura.”

She huffed and turned her sword around to fit back into the scabbard hidden between the folds of her skirt. His eyes followed the action and fixated on the discoloration of her skirts.

“You’re hurt!” he exclaimed. He approached her and knelt at her side even as Sakura turned her body around to hide the stain from her blood.

“It’s fine. It’s what I needed the rose for. I’ll be well with this. You can back off.”

He reached up for her hand and grasped it gently, like a gentle lord would. Sakura felt stiff at once and didn’t move as he rose to stand alongside her. 

“Please, Lady Sakura, let me invite you in where you may rest.” 

He held her hand with one of his own and swept the other out into a shallow bow before beckoning her to join him down at the base of the rubble. He moved like a shadow or beam of light, something that never made sound on it’s own and it made sense considering how he was no longer technically human. He was in the same class as her.

Sakura made her way down with little extra effort, but winced when she hopped down to the ground and jolted her wounds again. She covered the hiss of pain with a shallow chuckle that didn’t fool anyone.

“Come,” he urged, taking her hand again.

Sakura followed at his beckoning, knowing she wouldn’t be in any danger from this Tam Lin and suspecting whatever he was taking to her would be modest and just as run down as the rest of the castle.

She was wrong. 

The interior reeked of magic and elegance of the elven kind. There were white birch trees with leaves of honey gold growing neatly out of the floor in rows down the great hall and banners hanging across the stone walls in shades of rich emerald and crimson.

There were tapestries clustered with the imagery of fairy traditions and rituals she recognized too well. The main tapestry behind the head of the table was stitched with the setting from a Fair Folk tradition between Day and Night courts called the Rabbit Games, where each side chose a champion to don the mask of a rabbit and outrun the enemies’ hounds. In the tapestry a woman in a long black dress and a black rabbit mask outran several elven knights with long ears and gold armor decorated with foxes and wolves.

The table of the main hall was dripping in finery and exotic dishes, unfolding upon the gold and silver plates out of the space between spaces, growing more bountiful the closer they approached.

Hashirama drew her to a bench between two white trunked trees and beckoned her to recline upon the pillows. Sakura just glared harder at him and tugged her hand back.

“I’m not at liberty to bare my wounds to you, sir. You are too bold.”

He had the decency to blush. “Please, I am a healer and mean nothing by it I only wish to help you.”

“I can help myself,” Sakura grumbled.

“Of…of course. Here.”

He gestured to the bench again and backed away. As he drew back the trees grew wider and thicker, extending new branches that obscured her alcove from his view.

Sakura grunted and sat down on the edge of the bench and pulled her shirt out of the waist band of her skirts, up over her head. Next, she untied the bow from her skirt around her waist. Looking each wound over Sakura sighed and turned the double headed rose over before tilting her head back and stuffing it into her mouth, thorns and all. She nearly gagged, but push it all the way down and let the magic in her burn the rose away before it could choke her out.

In response, each wound began to glow with a honey colored glow as the magic from the rose dissolved the curse that kept her from healing. The bites around her side were the worst but she could see those closing up nicely when she pulled the bandages back to watch skin knit skin.

By the end of the night she hoped it would all be gone.

“Are you decent, lady Sakura?” Hashirama called out to her a minute later.

Sakura huffed and pulled her cloths to her chest but didn’t slip back into them. “No. What do you want?”

One of the branches grew towards her, bearing a folded cloth draped like it was meant to be there. It stopped right in front of Sakura and she reached to remove it. The dress unfolded at her hands and pulled around her ankles on the floor when she held it up. It was simple and sturdy enough.

“What is this for?” Sakura called back through the trees.

“You need not don your bloody things. Please, dress and come eat so that you may not grow weary.”

His voice sounded happy when he answered, and Sakura suspected he was actually smiling even though she couldn’t tell or see his face in any way to know that for sure.

“Your kindness is too much. I should not stay here long.”

“Please, you are my guest!” he exclaimed. She heard him scuffle on the other side of the trees and then he spoke softer. “Please. I wish to dine with the first guest in many a year. Let me be a good host.”

Sakura looked down at the dress and felt the cotton between her hands. Sighing, she tugged it on and smoothed it out when she stood. There was a glittering belt still on the branches she looked over for hexes or magic and finding nothing. Sakura clipped it about her waist and was a bit dazzled by the brilliance of it. The stones were large and lovely, making it the prize of any noble lord or lady. Her sword dangled from it nicely.

“I think I am ready now, Hashirama.”

She heard his gasp and then stammering. “Oh-oh of course. Of course. Please.” 

The trees pulled back and strand their branches while leaving the leaves to fall off and shed across the stone floor like paper gold. He was there when the branches pulled away, grinning happily at her.

“It’s been a while since I heard someone else call my name.”

“You’re alone here?” Sakura asked, looking for invisible servants. She couldn’t see anything that moved.

“Precisely so, but I am not uncared for. Come, sit at my table and break bread with me.” He held his hand out for her again and delighted when she took it. 

Out of the corner of her eye Sakura caught movement and turned to see a stag at the corner of the room, walking in with a doe at his heels. A blue songbird fluttered down, chased off by a handful of others nesting in the rafters. Hashirama held out his hand and the bird perched on his fingers.

_Not as alone as she first assumed._

“When was the last time you broke bread with other person you could talk to?” Sakura asked.

“I can talk to the birds and the trees. But another human you mean…oh, it’s been ages I dare say.”

Sakura eyed him critically, unable to not see the way his ears shaped themselves like leaves that poked through his long chestnut hair.

“Neither of us are truly human, though.” 

The bird fluttered off his fingers and his smile lessened in vibrance. His face was still kind as it looked to her. “Maybe we are no longer what humans would recognize as their own, but what else could we call ourselves?”

Like Tam Lins, being a changeling meant you didn’t fit on either side of the fence between the good neighbors and the humans. You weren’t one or the other, you were caught in between with no real home.

The white handprint on her skin was a brand that drove her from village after village and town after town. The same people who begged for her help would chase her out the minute they had what they wanted. What had made her a rouge to the people had made him a hermit to his.

Sakura took his offered hand and sat alongside him on the bench at the head of the table. A squirrel with an enormously bushy tail ran up to her plate and then sat beside it, staring up at her expectedly. Nothing thinking twice about it, Sakura fed it from the fruits multiplying from her plate.

She waited for the questions to come but was a bit surprised when Hashirama started to tell her about all the different animals. Most of them had names but all of them loved him in their own way. None of them seemed afraid of him or even her when she sat next to them. That wasn’t…terribly unusual. People touched by the fair folk naturally were more trusted by animals, but that didn’t always mean loved.

It surprised her when the first question between them came from her. “How long have they loved you like this?”

“Ever since I came back to Carter Hall. It’s a funny story. Here is my birthright but one day I was riding through the forests on my horse and off I fell. I thought that was it, but I was swept up and the Queen of the Fox Court saved me and made me one of her knights in her realm for what felt like a mere summer. When she sent me back home it was overgrown and my family was gone. I’ve been here ever since, waiting for someone to summon me back and be useful."

The fork stayed hovering in front of her her mouth. “Mito?”

“Yes, the very one,” Hashirama exclaimed.

Sakura groaned and lowered her fork back down to the plate. “Of course she would. Do you remember what spooked your horse in the first place, casing it to buck you off?”

“Not in the least,” he chuckled in good nature.

“I bet you don’t,” Sakura mumbled under her breath, feeling a little sick in her heart at how little he cared about his fate. He probably didn’t even know about Mito’s _teind_ to hell.

“It’s not such a terrible fate. I’m fit as can be, I have many adorable friends, and there is no need or want that is not met under this roof. Watch!” he extended a single hand and inhaled. “I wish for a chest of gold.”

The table groaned as a chest settled in the middle, turning over and spilling gold across the floor. Sakura stood up suddenly but didn’t move towards or away from it.

“See? Anything I want will appear. Is there something you want? I can ask for it for you. Pearls or rubies?” He looked eagerly towards her, so excited to be able to show off for someone.

“What good are things like those if you are stuck here all alone?” Sakura huffed, settling back into her seat and closing her eyes. “No thank you. I don’t want anything I don’t need. Especially if it’s coming from a fair folk’s magic wells.”

“Truly? There is nothing I can get for you?” he asked, tone dropping along with his expression.

Sakura waved his concerns away and forced herself to smile. “You are very kind, but no thank you. The food is delicious and more than enough to satisfy. I need nothing more.”

“Then can I offer you a room for the night. It is nearly twilight and the roads are unforgiving in the dark this far out. You will be safe under this roof my lady.”

“You know precious little of me, other than the fact that I’ve picked your only double headed rose despite your pleas. You think it will be safe to invite a person such as I into your home?”

“Of course,” he laughed. He gestured to his chest and grinned wide. “I may not look it, but I’ve been defending this place for nearly seven years now and never had a problem with anyone who came through. Plus, the animals always tell me what they think and they trust you the most, more than any other visitor, so I’ll trust you too.”

She wasn’t sure why she felt guilty when he smiled at her, because she wasn’t planning on doing anything to feel guilty about, but when she settled down for the night she figured it out. He said nearly seven years. Halloween was in a month. He was Mito’s _teind _to hell and she hadn’t said anything to him about it. But…there was no way he didn’t know by this point. Right?

‘Whatever, I have my own problems.’

* * *

“You’re staying for breakfast?” he asked with good cheer when he saw her on the bench in the early hours of light.

“Just for another couple of days. I’ll intrude upon you no longer than that. By then my wounds will not be enough to bother me on the road. Of course if you wish me gone sooner that’s fine too-“

“Oh no, no!” Hashirama was quick to dash in front of her and grab both her hands. “Of course not. Please, feel at home here and stay as long as you like. You have my permission to remain as long as your heart desires.”

“No, it’s really only going to be a couple of days.”

“Of course, as long as you wish it.”

“I’m serious,” Sakura countered. “Only a couple of days.”

A couple of days turned into a week. A week turned into a couple of weeks, and then the month was over and the wounds were healed but Sakura was still around, enjoying herself a little too much as she wrestled with the problem of what to do once halloween set.

Hashirama didn’t seem to take the threat very seriously, or if he did, he hid it well, and that annoyed her further. Whenever she tried to talk about it he would laugh and diver the conversation elsewhere. Even when she offered to help, he was overly cheerful about denying it. He insisted she didn’t owe him anything and when she told him it wasn’t about repaying a debt the conversation turned to water in her hands and no headway was made.

What made it worse was how he had started leaving her with instructions on how to take care of Carter Hall if she wanted to stay ‘after he went away,’ since the magic would still be making food and wine like it did for him. When it came to the likes and preferences of the animals Sakura didn’t think she could take it anymore.

“You’re not going to hell for her. Stop it, stop acting like you are,” Sakura hissed, backhanding the tray of berries out of his hand. They scattered across the floor and the squirrels raced for them. “Don’t treat me like this.”

“I-Sakura, I didn’t mean to offend.”

“You never do, which is why you’re stuck in the situation you’re in now. It’s not fair and I’m not so terrible a person that I’ll just sit back and watch it all unfold. You know I could probably do something so why won’t you let me help you?”

“Oh Sakura. There’s nothing you could do. It’s a done thing, my lady.”

His smile was sad and soft as he reached to brush his knuckles across her cheek. She didn’t pull away anymore, but she still refused to look at him if he touched her so tenderly. She considered them friends, maybe even good friends, but she was still a changeling and he was still a Tam Lin.

“You don’t know what I can and can’t do.”

“It’s not worth it anymore.”

He looked as if the conversation was going to end there but he caught himself when he saw her eyes wet and leaking. A tear slipped past her lashes onto his finger and it froze him in his spot. Sakura closed her eyes to hide the rest and pretend they weren’t there.

“A white horse.”

Her eyes shot open. “What?”

Hashirama wasn’t smiling anymore. “Listen to what I tell you, for it is what I was told in a moment of mercy. At Miles Cross lovers and humans will see the fair folk’s procession on this stretch of road only, led by the fair queen. So first let past the horses black and then let past the brown. Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down. For I’ll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town. Because I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown.”

Hashirama closed his eyes and inclined his head to hers.

“Oh, they will turn me in your arms to a newt or a snake but hold me tight and fear not. They will turn me in your arms into a lion bold but hold me tight and fear not, they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight. Then and only then cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight.”

He opened his eyes and there were tears making his own glassy as he stared into hers. “But that’s not the end of it, because if you do this she will come for you, and she will make you recount a defense. I know not any justification a mortal or changeling could grant to sever the bond of a Tam Lin from his turner. Her magic has fed and saved me for seven years. What could be powerful enough to break that bond? Please, do not try this, Sakura. You will fail.”

He leaned in to kiss the crown of her head, soft like one of his smiles for her. She felt him slip a ring on her finger made from gold as he drew away. When she opened her eyes to look he was gone, and for the rest of the two days before the Hallow’s Tide, Hashirama hid himself from her. 

* * *

She dressed in a long black dress that wouldn’t betray her in the night and a long green mantle pinned up high with a hood that hung low over her face. Her sword was safe in the scabbard around her waist, but as she found the cross at Miles road she unbuckled it from her belt and laid it out on the grass beside her. She was low in the bushes, watching the center of the crossroads where the fair folk would walk. Anyone not touched by the good neighbors or without hag stones would have to wait until they were in the cross of the roads to see them, where their magic couldn’t hide them from mortal eyes, but Sakura didn’t need to wait for that.

The mists rolled in right on time and the air chilled with the presence of spirits but she stayed in the bushes and didn’t move. Something cold trailed along her face and she didn’t move. Something reached for her ankle but she didn’t move. Something whispered in her ear and then shouted at her, but she didn’t move.

Far off the fox fire lit and the first faces started to appear. A the front were the fair knights in glittering armor, guarding a Queen most fair with a veil of red. Anyone who saw her face would be struck dead by the sight of it.

Sakura held her breath and kept her eyes fixed on the rest of the procession. Passed the knights on horses of red, black, and then finally brown. At the very end of the line was a single white horse, somewhat separated from the others. Atop its back sat Hashirama in his elven robes and armor, hair intricately braided half up and woven with leaves. His face was painted with the markings of the _teind_ to hell.

Sakura left her sword behind and waited till the last moment and then sprang upon him at the crossroads, reaching with all her strength to tear him down from his steed onto the earth.

Hashirama cried out and twisted into something long and slithering, trying to get away, but Sakura held him tighter, even as he grew arms like a newt and tried to wriggle away. Sakura whispered hexes to herself for strength as he bulged and became a roaring lion with teeth and claws that couldn’t reach her as long as she held him tight. She pulled him closer and he roared louder before turning into a smaller cat that nearly turned to bite at Sakura’s shoulder. She felt the teeth and hissed at the touch but there was no pain. Hashirama bulged in her hands and then bled white, shrinking and shedding until he was a pale, naked knight in her arms.

With one good arm Sakura pulled her mantle over his form and pressed herself on top of him, hiding him from the rest of the world in her dark fabrics. He was burning flesh under her and she knew if she let him go or if the world saw him he would turn into a burning coal that could consume her.

“Hold there, young maid. Who are you the challenge the _teind_ of the Faery Queen?” a voice called out to her.

“I am the one who challenges it!” Sakura shouted back, keeping her head down and body prone atop Hashirama who still burned beneath her. “This knight is mine. He fell from his horse and I caught him. His life is mine.”

“He has been owned before from such the same fate. What do you say to challenge this?”

Sakura licked her lips and hoped she wasn’t wrong. “I have more right to him than tee, for this man is my love and the may yet be the husband of my hand.” 

She held out the hand with the gold ring he had gifted to her two days ago, as a token of his affections but with no true ulterior intention. It was a brilliant thing without stones, etched and crafted into the shape of a many branched tree that hugged her finger.

Below her, Hashirama instantly stopped burning and turned cold beneath her. The horses around her stomped and cried out. Sakura looked up finally and saw the red haired queen with the cloth over her face.

“You,” she hissed, looking down at Sakura. “You are touched by another. From which court does this aggression stem?”

“No court, fair Queen. I am that which has been cast out. My mother was of The Milk and Moon court before now.”

“Kaguya, I should have known.” Mito growled angrily, pulling her horse back. “I’ll curse you in another life for this girl!”

“Please, let he and I be, and challenge us no more,” Sakura implored, keeping her head down.

The hooves of her horse stopped in front of Sakura but she didn’t look up, only held her breath and kept Hashirama hidden beneath her.

“Oh, had I known, Tam Lin, “ she said, "what this knight I did see, I have looked him in the eyes and turned him to a tree.”

In a wheel of wind the procession was gone and they were alone. When Sakura looked down Hashirama was asleep and nearly human again, but like anything touched by magic, he would never truly be human again.

Sakura carried him back to Carter Hall and was surprised when the bed she wished for appeared out of magic. She tucked Hashirama in and sighed deep.

“What have I done?” she whispered to the dark of the room. She hadn’t meant to become so involved, but here she was, tied by some odd magic to not only one, but two different men.

Sakura rubbed her face with her hands, filled her pack with food, checked her sword, and bid the animals farewell. The road was calling to her again, and she knew she couldn’t stay much longer if she wanted to stay free and keep ahead of the Milk Court’s hunters and whatever curse the Queen of the Fox Court had in mind for her.

* * *

Hashirama awoke and felt light in his chest and a new wholeness he hadn’t felt in years. No, this was new compared to that true human feeling. Yes he was broken free from the queen and her courts, but the magic hadn’t released him entirely.

Not that he needed it to.

Hashirama smiled wide and pushed back the covers and jumped from his bed screaming her name. He ran through the halls, and then into he gardens where she loved to watch the flowers. She was neither place, but when he turned to ask the birds they say she wasn’t in any of the other places within Carter Hall.

Fear made him human made heart race. “What do you mean, then where is she? Did the queen take her away? Where is my wife to be?”

The birds sang to him and only more fear came into his heart as the birds recounted the story from the night she saved him from hell. He remembered the claim she made, how he was her love and husband to be. He even remembered the curse the queen spoke upon Sakura’s head.

“She’s been driven away in fear.”

He looked to the gate and felt his resolve harden. There was nothing holding him back anymore, nothing binding him to Carter Hall with invisible chains. He could leave as he pleased, and if Sakura was out there running, it was his turn to find her and save her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you squint, you might catch some White Rabbit easter eggs.


	3. Changling 1

The Angel’s Trumpet was a nicer pub, though not the sort that Madara thought would be perfect for clues and rumors. But, if Sasuke’s intel was correct, the pub also served as a front for blackmarket trading of the magical variety.

He walked in alone, keeping the front of his cloak down to hide the expensive tailoring that would out him as an easy mark for pick pockets. Well, not _easy_, per say, but certainly worth the risk. Not many other men in the pub seemed like princes.

“Indeed, a king’s ransom. I am as valid in my word as I am in my coin, good sir.”

Madara flinched at the booming voice, most likely belonging to a man who wasn’t used to having to hold it in. The speech was too formal for a pub, even a pub as neat as the Angel’s Trumpet.

Rounding the corner he found the source of the ruckus. The secondhand embarrassment was enough to make his hackles raise. The man at the bar had no consideration for humility or self preservation it seemed. He was dressed richly in new garments of emerald green and dark navy. Around his neck he wore a chain of gold that matched three of his rings. His hair was neatly groomed and styled in an old fashion straight down to his shoulders with a circlet to match.

“Idiot,” Madara huffed, spying the coin purse out in the open and near bursting.

Well, at least he didn’t have to worry about being the most ostentatious mark in a pub of under-common folk.

Madara folded back the front of his cloak over his shoulder and took a seat only a few stools down from the boisterous prince, tapping the bar in front of him for the house ale. The bartender looked Madara over and then produced the beverage on good faith. Not one to blow that faith, Madara slipped a couple of silver coins forward and then whispered his request when the bartender leaned over to collect.

“It’s not the most common of requests, sir. Eh, you sure you wouldn’t want a new wife? There are, ahem, plenty of willing women who would be happy to be your ah….soul’s mate.”

Madara glanced sideways at the man who was conversing with the prince.

“No, no, I couldn’t. It wouldn’t matter if it were any other girl, but my wife is special and the only one I want. Please understand that. My soul mate can not be so easily replaced.”

“I don’t think you could say that if you haven’t tried others.”

The prince huffed in frustration, waving a hand that glittered in gold between them. “I will excuse your vulgar suggestions. I don’t want to _try_ others. I have come here for that reason, because the information about the fairy-blessed stems from here.”

“Shh, shush, my lord, not so loud Ay, we have what you need, but be mindful. These are delicate discussions we have here. Someone might be upset with us for talking about these things. It’s not so safe for us.” The man then nodded to the sack of gold between them. “It’s not cheep either.”

“I assure you money is no object in this matter.”

Madara almost dropped his head onto the counter at the incompetence he was hearing. Having been locked up in a tower for most of his life he knew he wasn’t the most blessed with social graces, but at least he knew the _basics_. He had watched and listened long enough to know when someone was being stupid ad making a fool out of themselves. The Lord was likely the biggest fool of all.

Madara schooled his features back into something nonchalant and then sipped from his drink, still listening with his impressive hearing. 

“I seek to know where I might find the nest of the moon touched fae.”

Madara cursed and almost broke his glass for holding it too tightly as the seller of information whistled low and leaned in.

“That’s nothing cheap. You know they’re far more fearsome than several of the other courts. Betraying them with this information comes at great risk to my health eh.” 

Madara turned in his seat and glared over at the men. He took his drink with him and set it down, rather loudly, between the pair of them. Both looked up but only one cowered.

“That information shouldn’t be nearly as dangerous to your safety as you think,” he growled, leaning in closer to the information broker. “Or is this your habit to swindle the foolish out of their coin for a lie?”

“F-for a lie? Sir!”

Madara dragged his drink back to his mouth and tipped it back until the ale was drained . “Am I mistaken? You’ve not yet shared how you’ve come by this information or proved how credible you are. You’re out here in the open, aren’t you? Is that where business is normally conducted?” Madara turned his empty glass over and then slapped it down on the counter.

“You don’t know nothing. Quit butting in to business that’s got nothing to do with you.”

The better dressed man turned towards Madara and then asked. “How would you know to ask such questions, good sir?”

Madara glanced to the bartender who was talking to someone else and then pointing his way. It was enough to make him grin. He jabbed at thumb at the other guy before turning away. “Because I’m buying from the source, he’s second hand.”

“Don’t listen to him. I can get you want you want.”

“A thousand apologies but I must decline.”

Madara groaned internally as he heard the bafoon gathered up his things to follow him.

“Wait.”

He would learn from this mistake. Turning on his heel he stopped and fit his hands on his hips, ready to listen to something stupid. “What?” he hissed, glaring darkly.

“You also seek the same answers I quest for? Why?”

Madara snorted, not caring how crude it seemed. “Why? You’re asking me for the reason behind my own businesses and you’re not even offering to buy me a drink? Were you birthed under a rock?”

“I assure you not, sir. I was birthed by blessed womanhood same as any man.”

If he were a lesser man Madara would have flushed red as several pub patrons turned in their seats to stare over at the two men shouting about _blessed womanhood_. It was a pub but it wasn’t a seedy pub and at least there weren’t prostitutes hanging on the stairs.

“Lower you voice, you’re too loud.”

Madara grabbed the man’s arm and turned them both towards a table not far from the bar. He made eye contact with the bartender who was watching him suspiciously and waved another two silver for one more drink.

“If you don’t like it you don’t have to drink it, but just take the drink and pretend to be a good patron of the establishment you want to do business in,” Madara grumbled as he sat down across the table.

The other man nodded, eyes suddenly wide as he realized the truth in Madara’s words. “Verily, you speak with great wisdom and I thank you, kind sir. You are a most peculiar individual but I wish to know you now. My name is Hashirama.”

“Madara,” he grunted.

The drink came over and Madara whispered again when the bartender tried to take their money. This time the bartender looked less pleased, but took the money regardless and went on his way.

“Madara,” Hashirama echoed. “A fine name. Would it be wrong of me to assume you seek something in the courts of the pale folk?”

“Here’s the thing,” Madara started, leaning in. “When you talk about stuff like that you should really keep you voice down and try to avoid attracting attention. The other guy was a scam but he wasn’t wrong about that. You are asking about a sensitive subject.”

“I understand that I think.” He sipped at his drink and then grimaced. “But I am no less resoled in my aims. This is something I can not turn away from, no matter the challenge it may prove to be.”

“You’re lookin for a way into the fae realms, that’s always a challenge, but not nearly as challenging as getting _out_ of said realms.” Madara reached across the table for Hashirama’s ale and took it to drink from.

Hashirama frowned at the drink Madara seemed to down so easily. “What is your aim in this matter, if you truly are after the same thing? I have not met many who even know the name of the fae realms, much less want to trespass there. What are you reasons, sir?”

“I have my reasons.”

Hashirama blinked, looking lost. “I believe you do. What are they?”

Madara blanched. “Are you really just going to always be this blunt and dull? I have my reasons. Why do I need to share them with you?” Hashirama took a breath to reply but Madara cut back in. “And don’t answer in that archaic old man speech no one uses anymore. You sound like you’re from the wrong century.”

“Would you believe me if I told you such things are possible with the fae?”

Madara narrowed his eyes. “I’d believe that. Do you seek revenge then?”

“Not nearly something so crass. They have my wife!” Hashirma inhaled sharply and then sank a little more into his seat. “They took my wife from me.”

In spite of all his ire, Madara felt his heart melt a little for the other man’s woes. It was something he could relate to. “They abducted your wife?” he echoed, voice low. “When?”

Hashirama shook his head, eyes turning red around the edges as he fought back tears. “Sometime in the past couple of months. She had provoked the wrath of a different fae to save me, after I urged her to flee and save herself. She did not heed any of my words, but risked her own safety to rescue me. I did not deserve her. I should have kept her safe with my own two hands but she took to the roads to get ahead of the dangers chasing her. In her efforts to stay safe, the courts she sought refuge from extracted too high a price.” Hashirama breathed deep, eyes glassy as he looked up at Madara. “I must rescue her.”

Madara nodded slowly, believing the other man’s words. “That sounds like something the moon court would do. There are many stories of them abducting babies and fools and desperate lovers to entertain their own ends. It is also the reason for my own inquiries.”

Hashirama sniffed and then leaned across the table. “You have lost a friend to these fiends as well?”

“Worse,” Madara growled out. “_My_ wife.” 

Hashirama’s mouth fell open and his eyes went even wider. “You too? When did it happen? Ha-h-how did it happen?”

Madara didn’t cry for his loss anymore, but he raged when he knew he could because the story got worse every time he had to repeat it. “She was originally chased off by my father for having been abducted by the fae when she was a child, but I pursued her. And over many different lands I came close, but never close enough. She was a woman of many kindnesses, always doing what she could to aid others when it seemed impossible. There was a boy, no a child, caught by the sounds of the fae that she exchanged herself for. I know where she is trapped now, and I will not falter to bring her back.”

“I pray you find her, friend.”

Madara swallowed, still angry with himself. “And you as well.”

He felt better about sticking his neck out for this other person now that he knew what drove his reckless pursuit. He could sympathize. Like Hashirama, Madara was also a little reckless to get his wife back. He had woken up alone too many times since she first saved him those months ago. He wasn’t willing to hold anything else back.

Itachi had been the one who found the initial information about Sakura’s brave sacrifice, but it was Sasuke who had found out who knew what to do next. Both of his brothers were dedicated to helping him and it wouldn’t be fair to them if he lagged in his own efforts.

Maybe Hashirama would be a boon to his own pursuits to find Sakura. He was willing to take a chance on his gut feeling. He believed that Hasirama was a fool, but an honest fool. 

The bartender from before came over to their table with a new set of drinks. “The man upstairs will see you now,” he glanced from Madara to Hashirama, frowning at the latter, “_both_ of you.”

Madara took both of the drinks in hand and then nodded for Hashirama to follow him up. He already knew which room their information would be coming out of. 

* * *

Hashirama woke up and wished he hadn’t.

When he rolled over there was nothing but blank space to meet him, whereas only moments earlier he had dreamed of shy smiles, long pink hair and hazy emerald eyes that watched him through sooty lashes. He reached for her hand, to thread his fingers through hers, but there was nothing but empty space.

Sakura wasn’t there.

She was supposed to be there.

He sat up and let the covers fall away, stepping over them to cross the campsite. His boots lay discarded next to his bedroll but he left them behind to walk through the grass and soil barefoot. He stopped beside a tree and touched the bark, using it to calm and ground his angry nerves.

The forest whispered words of comfort to him when he stopped to listen and he was grateful once again, for the fact that his abilities as Tam Lin hadn’t left him when he broke from the Fox Court’s thrall. More than his ability to conjure gold and rubies from pure thought while in the halls of his birthright, it was the comforting words of nature he valued most.

‘You will prevail,’ the trees seemed to whisper, and the trees never lied. ‘You will find her again and you will be made well.’

“But I am suffering now,” he whispered back. “It’s my fault she’s in that place right now. Because of me she’s suffering a fate she didn’t deserve.”

The day before they had heard more from the locals, about what happened to those who were spirited off to the court of the Moon Fae. Some of the stories made his stomach turn. Sakura didn’t deserve to be stripped of all thought and caught up in a never-ending dance or feast on festering fruit. Even the stories of the butterfly sleepers made him uneasy. Dreaming forever in a chrysalis until a fairy tree grew out of the goo that had once been their human body-stuck forever in a new form in a dream that never ended, it sounded horrible.

The stories were as varied as they were horrible, but the closer they traveled the more similar they became.

Whoever was abducted in the past season would be cloistered away in something called the tree of ten beasts, whatever that meant. He hoped it was a literal tree he could communicate with. That would be a lucky break for him. He was in sore need of some more luck.

Hopefully, while they were there he could help Madara find his lost wife as well. The poor man suffered an even older loss. When Madara described his struggles Hashirama’s heart broke a little bit more. At least he had whole months with Sakura before she left him. Madara had watched his wife from afar for long enough, but they had only one night together as man and wife, and he had been so tired from the spell she saved him from that it wasn’t nearly enough time to be with his true love. Hashirama had vowed to help Madara in any way he could.

The pair of them had a lot in common and it was a fine fate that their paths crossed in that pub when then did. Like Madara, Hashirama’s wife had broken him free of a dark magic and proved herself to him as his soul’s true mate. Like Hashirama, Madara’s wife had also been run off by fear.

‘Why do you want her back? She left.’

Hashirama turned to see the seedling of a tree not far from the roots of another. He stepped closer to it a knelt down. He couldn’t tell exactly what breed of tree it would be, but it wasn’t the type that was most prevalent in the forest. It was younger than the other trees and spoke with the voice of a child.

“I seek my wife. I love her.”

‘Why?’

Hashirama almost wanted to laugh as he reached down to stroke the small infant tree. “Such a question. Love, it is indeed a question for the ages. I wish I understood it well enough to make sense of it, but I’m afraid I can not. I love her. I fell for her courage, her honesty, her helpfulness, and her beauty. She is kind without seeking any attention for her kindness. She helped me even though it was at the risk of her own safety.”

‘Why?’

He finally laughed out loud. “Why, indeed. I don’t know, but I want to believe it’s because she loved me. She won me back from a fate set in hell by claiming me as her love. She said I was her husband and that I belonged to her.” He touched the underside of the plant’s single leaf bud. “I had no hope for myself to survive my doom, much less to ascend to such heights of bliss. Now that I have tasted happiness, I am unwilling to give it up. I’m unwilling to give up _her_.” 

‘…Why?’

“Because I am weak and there has never been a time in my life where I was happier then when I was with her. I want to fight for that now.”

The sprout might have asked him its only question once more but Hashirama stood suddenly and turned away, facing the source of the noise behind him.

Madara stepped back into the clearing, another bundle of brushwood under his arm. He looked up with a tired expression when he saw Hashirama awake.

“I thought you would be asleep. We traveled far today,” the Uchiha prince said around a yawn. He dropped the wood by the edge of the fire and crouched down to hand feed individual pieces to the flames.

“I couldn’t sleep. What about yourself? You also traveled leagues beside me today. Are you not tired?” Hashirama asked, kneeling beside the fire to help.

Madara grunted in thanks before replying. “I don’t tire the same as normal men. I can go much further and last far longer than either of my human brothers. I tried to sleep, but I heard, no, I dreamed of my wife’s voice again, when she sang me to sleep.”

“That’s a lovely memory,” Hashirama admitted. He wondered if Sakura sang, and if she might be willing to sing with him once they were reunited.

“It is, but right now it haunts me. I hear her singing and then she’s screaming, trapped far away somewhere I can’t reach her. She’s powerful and wise, but that doesn’t mean I can’t worry for her sake.” Madara sighed in frustration. “I don’t know where she is. I can’t rest easy not knowing if she’s unharmed or not.”

“I can understand that. When I first met my wife, she was hurt. She came onto my lands for a double headed rose that might cure her from some sort of curse. She was very capable and healed herself right up, but she still came to me in blood soaked things. I know my wife has a kind soul, but sometimes I wish she would rely on me more.”

“Exactly,” said Madara.

Hashirama nodded along. “I’m still fairly capable as her husband. I’m strong and fast and I have a connection to the earth as a former Tam Lin. She can rely on me!”

“It’s the same for me. I’m stronger and faster and cunning in ways she doesn’t even know about. I could easily protect her if she were to come back under my wing once more,” Madara added eagerly. 

“I feel you are a brother who understands my woes, Madara. You know my pain.”

“What is it with women like that anyway? It’s an epidemic.”

Hashirama chuckled. “Indeed, but you will never hear me complain again for as long as I live if only I were to have her back by my side again. She can be as willful as she wants to be, I just want to hold her once again.”

Madara nodded slowly. “I am the same.”

“I am glad you found me, and I am glad that I do not need to make this dreadful journey on my own,” Hashirama said, watching as the flames caught on and spread the fire to the newly added brush. “Maybe by this time tomorrow, we’ll be in the fairy lands and then I can find my wife and you yours.”

“I don’t think they’ll be able to stop us,” Madara agreed.

“When you are free with your wife, you should come visit Carter Hall. You’ll never be hungry or have want as long as you stay under my roof. I have no other subjects but the birds and beasts, so it’s a perfect respite.”

“How do you have food without subjects? Who do you lord over?”

“There are men and women in the territory, but I do not tax for I have no need of such things. When I am in Carter Hall the magic of that place gives me all that I might need,” he explained.

Madara asked a few more questions about the technicalities of Carter Hall and where it was located geographically. Hashirama was more than happy to answer, but he also asked Madara much about his family’s kingdom and family.

Madara loved his brothers, despised his father, and adored his mother, but admitted it might be nice to get away from them for a spell and relax out of sight. His father had given up on marrying off his eldest for the throne, and officially made Itachi his heir. Plenty of women were willing and eager to be the second prince’s wife.

“But I think he still has a crush on my wife,” Madara whispered behind his hand, even though there was no one else who could overhear their conversation. His wineskin was half empty and his breath thick with the scent of fermented elderberry. Halfway through their talk he had pulled it out and helped himself to the sweet nectar. 

Hashirama chuckled, taking another sip from the mango juice he had purchased in the town earlier. “And you’re not jealous?”

“I might have been, in the beginning when I was young and ignorant, but I don’t mind it much now. Itachi wouldn’t do anything on his own, and even if my wife fell for another man….” Madara eyes flashed and he took a long drink from his wineskin before finishing. “Well, I still wouldn’t hold it against her. I’d just care that she came back to me.”

“That’s very kind of you. I can tell you really love her. I would be the same, I think. A little heartbroken, but I’d take her back no matter what. How could I do anything else when she’s the one who has my heart?”

“And how could I blame any other guy?” Madara asked louder than before. His wineskin was empty and dangling from his fingers. “She’s so frustratingly beautiful. She’s the most amazing creature I’ve ever known. If a man isn’t a little bit in love with my wife they’ve got no taste-or they’re already too in love with their own women, no offense to you my friend.”

Hashirama laughed. “I feel the same, I feel the same too! I thought I was odd for thinking it. But my wife is a creature of unparalleled beauty and kindness.”

“She’s so strong and fearless and fun,” Madara sighed, leaning into his hand as he stared into the flames, almost ignoring Hashirama who was also similarly mesmerized by the flickering light. “Such charisma.”

“She’s a light in my dark life.”

Hashirama finished his drink and packed away the skin. He stood and slapped Madara on the shoulder, laughing that they should get some small measure of rest before the sun came up and they were off to find the rest of the fairy path. It wouldn’t be accessible until the next night’s moon, but they wanted to be as close to the abduction site as possible.

It was a fine plan, and it filled Hashirama up with hope.

When he laid down for the second time in his bedroll, he turned over onto his side and imagined he was back in Carter Hall, lying in a bed of soft cotton sheets the color of cream, and she was next to him, hair like a halo, skin as soft as peaches. She would open her eyes and smile shyly at him until he dragged her into his arms where he could kiss her. He dreamed of holding her, of always having her, of never being alone again.

* * *

Sakura couldn’t stand the feel of fabric on her anymore, not with the white handprint burning through her skin day and night. She picked at it, brushed her fingers over it, dabbed it with any manner of liquid she could come across, but there was no respite from the sting of Kaguya’s mark. It had been burning since she fell into the matron’s trap and it would burn for as long as Sakura resisted her ‘mother’s’ laws.

“You’ve been so willful, what else was I to do?” Kaguya sighed, settling down into the moon colored pillows and cushions that lay scattered around Sakura.

Kaguya turned on her elbow to gaze up at Sakura through her lashes, pearl colored eyes wide and watchful. Instead of a courtly gown Kaguya was dressed in a formless mass of silver white spider silk that caught the light greedily when it fell over her curves. Sometimes she was formless through the dress, other times she was a tease of a shape, but at all times she was queen on high of all the Moon fae.

Kaguya sighed and reached out to touch Sakura’s bare shoulder with just the point of her finger. Sakura stiffened at the contact but didn’t turn or acknowledge Kaguya’s presence. The queen pulled her finger away but there was no mark that throbbed years after it’s contact. Marking was normally a more formal affair.

“You are upset with me,” Kaguya said.

Sakura stared ahead, keeping her tone as even as she could. “I am in pain, it is common among us fragile humans.”

Kaguya shifted, crawling up behind Sakura, easily larger than any human woman Sakura had ever met. Sometimes Kaguya was thin and slight, other times she towered over the bears and deer. She was as bond to her flesh as she wanted, and her whims were too frequent to confine her to a singular shape for too long.

“It shouldn’t hurt so much now that you’re here. You resist and do it to yourself. Come daughter, eat, drink, remember and leave that old world behind. It’s not nearly as full as glee as my courts. What do I lack to make you so displeased, daughter?”

“I wish to be free.”

“Daughter, you know why I can no longer allow that.”

“I was fine.”

Kaguya hummed, reaching for Sakura’s hair and tugging it up into a fanciful crown braid that grew its own flowers. “Of course you were, but I dare not let my lessers think themselves clever. You were too juicy a temptation for the Fox Queen and that is no fault of mine.”

Sakura flinched, the memory still fresh. “I was doing just fine. She wouldn’t have been able to do anything to me if I kept moving. That’s what I always do.”

“You are a changling true, you are wise to our ways, you are cunning and you are clever, but you are not fae.”

Sakura felt cold in her core when she heard Kaguya’s words. It was a truth she always knew and always hated. Changlings were a rejected breed of bastards caught between one world and the next. Humans rejected her, feared her, and spurned her in their homes.The fae welcomed her gladly, but never saw her as anything more than a funny sort of pet.

What was worse?

Kaguya called her daughter, but Kaguya had hundreds of daughters she cared for like flowers. She would pick them out of their baskets and admire them all through their short human life, then replace them once the withering began. Sakura was nothing more than a pretty flower, admired and desired, but never truly loved.

“I know what I am. She would not have caught me. I am _your_ changling, after all.”

Kaguya’s pearl colored eyes shimmered with delight at Sakura’s boasting. She reached for Sakura and pulled her in for a kiss that tingled long after the fan’s lips left Sakura’s temple. “You are indeed. Make merry in my courts and forget your worries. When the next _teind _is paid the Fox Queen will forget you well enough.”

Sakura knew Kaguya’s game well enough to predict the queen’s next move. Kaguya would speak about letting Sakura leave after a time, but whenever that time drew near Kaguya would extend her conditions for Sakura being able to leave. She would make up some excuse to keep Sakura close and redouble her efforts to distract her changling daughter, but Sakura was not meant to dwell anywhere for long. Eventually she would need to wander. She was a changling, after all.

“I will dance tonight,” Sakura sighed, climbing to her feet. “And I will speak with Chiyo the spider about her magics before I depart again. I will be safer with the old woman’s knowledge.”

“Chiyo is a gifted changling daughter, who has held onto life for so long, but she is not fae enough to guarantee your safety.”

“That is the nature of life for us mortals.”

Kaguya shifted and stood, much like a snake would, with too much grace and poise to be human. “If you drink at my table you will not feel your mortality touch you for many more years.”

Sakura knew that, it was how Chiyo, a 700 year old woman, was still alive and only a little wrinkled. Sakura herself was older than she cared to admit.

Fae could make mortals dance until they died, and turn one night of party into 300 years. Dancing in the fairy rings was especially dangerous. If one danced well enough they could leave, but time in the rings was different than time outside. Sakura was careful to stay away from the wild dances.

Kaguya grabbed Sakura’s neck in her hands, encircling it easily. Sakura held still as her mother loomed. With a smile, Kaguya pulled her hands away from Sakura’s bare neck and stings of pears spilled out from the cold mark Kaguya’s fingers left. The pearls melted, shimmering in iridescent shades of every rainbow before fluttering into a dress that reached her naked feet. There was no need for footwear in the fairylands, though some fae stepped into heels when dancing on marble floors, most went without.

The white handprint dulled under the dress and Sakura sighed in relief, despite herself. She had been willing to resist Kaguya for ages, but gave in too quickly.

“You deserve a rest, my brave little girl,” Kaguya cooed in delight. Her fingers traced Sakura’s face and left glittering pearl powder in streaks.

Sakura followed Kaguya through the paths woven into the world’s tree, what other humans called the tree of ten beasts. It was an ancient bone colored thing, seeping with sap the color of amber and sea green glass. When she walked under the light, Sakura glittered in different, filtered shades of colored light.

Inside the colors humans drifted. Some still had the bruises around their necks from when the fae cut them out of their homemade nooses. Others still wore their slit throats and wrists. Kaguya hated to see death in her forests, but famine left the desperate with little other choice.

Once upon a time that had almost been Sakura, but instead of a noose or a grave, Kaguya had picked her out of a basket soaked with blood to bait the wolves. Kaguya loved the baby in that basket as well as a fae could love anything, and that was how Sakura inherited a legacy neither human nor fae.

“My grandsons will be joining us. They came back to court recently.”

Sakura stifled a groan but knew Kaguya heard her. “You didn’t tell me that when you were trying to convince me to leave my room.”

“I knew it might not have the desired affect.”

“I don’t think I can entertain much more of Ashura’s advances. I have no desire to be his eighteenth wife. It’s degrading.”

“He has a taste for changelings, and it would be his third wife, not his eighteenth. Both my grandsons have coupled with changelings often enough, but marriage is far more rare. Indra has never taken a mortal or fae wife.”

“I’ve no desire the be the fourth or the first,” Sakura groaned.

“You’re far too entertaining for your own good.”

“It doesn’t help that they set the bar so low. Quite literally, all I do to earn their favor is insult them to their faces and reject their advances. Neither grandson seems deterred with the countless rejections. You would think they would understand the concept of _no_ by now.” 

“They don’t hear it often enough,” Kaguya laughed.

“That’s not my problem or my job.”

Sakura picked up the front of her dress and stepped up onto a tree branch, pausing only when she noticed how abnormally still Kaguya stood, like she was listening for something. Sakura knew enough to know that something had upset her mother.

“Kaguya, what is it?”

She turned to stare back at Sakura. “Someone has entered uninvited. I can feel them on the tree somewhere.”

The Tree of Ten Tails was enormous large enough to be a town all on its own, but it was still a part of the Queen of the Moon Court and she could tell when it was disturbed.

“More fae?” Kaguya shook her head no in response, so Sakura guessed again. “Humans?”

“No, neither fae nor human. They might be more changling like you. Climb higher my darling. I will deal with them.” Fondly, Kaguya reached over and kissed Sakura’s eyelids before turning and sinking into the tree, out of sight.

Sakura didn’t climb higher.

Bunching her dress up in her fists she turned and ran down the length of a pale white branch, jumping from it to another and then another. She scaled the side of the trunk, running down it until another branch was thick and near enough to jump onto. She ran, listening to the air and the atmosphere, trying to guess where the disturbances were coming from, because there was a disturbance…at least two-no three of them! 

Sakura sailed through the air, letting go of the ends of her dress, leaving the trim to wave in the wind behind her like a flag as she stretched her bare legs out in front of her, catching the branch with her heels and springing forward, nearly rolling into the new momentum.

As she ran the tree shifted, turning like the living creature it was, and Sakura kept atop it with little difficulty, but at one point her ankle rolled into a knot and then she rolled in that direction off the edge of white into a pool of glittering green. The sap soaked up and swallowed her scream as she sank.

Her head went fuzzy and she knew it was a dream that would never end, but she wasn’t a depressed woman wanting to end her life or a suicidal farmer. She pushed back against the dream feeling and swam in the sap until she found the end of it.

The tree was bark all around her except on one side, where she knew those walking the halls could look in and see a dreaming human that would one day become something more at peace with all the terrible parts of the world. Swimming up wasn’t an option, as the opening she had fallen through was already closed up with the tree’s shifting.

Sakura pushed up against the surface, where sap was most solid. It cracked in parts and she was able to wiggle a finger or two out, but when more sap pool into the opening she tore with her nails, it hardened and made a new layer of the wall. If she had a sword or a knife it would be so much easier.

She breathed through the sap, managing air just fine. When tearing with her nails did no good she banged on the surface with her fists. It wobbled and absorbed the impact with a vibration, but never cracked.

On the other side of the sap surface she saw a shadow that paused and then drew closer. It probably saw her well enough, but there was too much sap in her eyes to make out more than just the shadow and outline of a figure. She raked her nails over the surface again and cut enough for a finger to get through. Whoever was on the other side touched her hand and then waved for her to back up, pushing her hand back in.

Sakura pushed her body back into the sap, feeling the resistance that meant to cradle her in dreams. The figure outside raised something up and then there was a creak and groaning. When the figure brought his arm down a gash was cut into the sap that sucked the contents out. Sakura gushed forward with the rest of the green substance, falling into a mess at the shadow’s feat where she hacked up the sap that had found its way into her mouth and nose.

“Sakura!”

She was caught up into a shaking embrace that folded her underneath some of the broadest shoulders she had ever known. A heartbeat later she knew exactly who held her.

She coughed, pushing at his arms. “Ha-Hasharama!” More sap heaved up from her lungs but she struggled though. “What are you doing here? This court isn’t a place for you.”

He laughed, helping to brush stray flowers from her damp hair. “I’m here to rescue you, of course! I would have traveled to the ends of the earth to hold you again. Don’t doubt me, dearest.”

In the distance she heard something that sounded like a dragon’s roar and then fire burning. It made her spine tingle and gut drop. She felt lost and overwhelmed.

“What’s going on?” She struggled to stand, but slipped as the last of the sap fell off her body, unable to cling like water or honey would. Only her hair still felt damp. “What’s happening? How did you get here? What’s going on with the tree?”

“My companion is engaging the queen. He also has a wife hidden in this maze he seeks to find. I meant to find the tree’s center and still it, but I’ll admit to not knowing how to manage it for once.” Hashirama glanced back over his shoulder. “I should rejoin my companion so he might find his wife. I doubt a fae queen will be so easy to beat.” 

“Kaguya!”

He kissed the front of her hair, mistaking her outburst for fear. “Don’t worry, she can’t harm you anymore. We’re taking you from here, back to Carter Hall.”

Hashirama pulled her along, tugging at her elbows to the end of the hall where they could both look down and see the smoke and black fire. Kaguya’s horns were both fully extended in agitation as she minimized the damage to her tree.

“Oh no,” Sakura breathed as realization made her sick.

Hashirama kissed the side of her face and then crouched down. “I need to go help him. Don’t worry. I won’t leave you.”

Then he was jumping down to where Hashirama was dodging the strikes of Kaguya’s tree. Falling into a roll, Hashirama unfolded with a sword drawn and slashed at the tree, casting it back with minor magic. 

Sakura took off, running down the halls to the lower levels, looking for somewhere she could jump out, watching for an opportunity.

She found it halfway down when another explosion of dragon fire, black as the soot cloud it created, flared up nearby. Sakura jumped out and ran down a branch before pushing off the side of trunk to a lower level. Her iridescent dress caught the light as it flared up behind her like wings, attracting Kaguya’s attention.

Her mother reached for her and Sakura ran to her, past aggressions forgotten as she worried for the fae queen who was never alone except when she was in danger. 

‘_Was it her sons again? Plotting to take the throne for themselves again?’_

“Sakura!” Kaguya breathed, relieved to see the girl safe. “I told you to leave.”

“I can’t, this is my fault,” Sakura whined, climbing the rest of the way down into her mother’s impossibly large arms.

“Your fault?”

Before Sakura could explain another roar of dragon anguish ripped through the atmosphere, this one devoid of actual fire as Madara surged forward with a sword of his own. “Unhand her!” he snarled, eyes flashing like blood diamonds.

“You have no claim in my realm, wyrm,” Kaguya hissed. Her own eyes flashed with the first signs of aggression now that Sakura was involved.

“Like hell I don’t, that’s my wife!” Madara roared.

Hashirama wasn’t far but stood higher up on a branch, but he dropped his own sword and stared, eyes wide. “What?”

Sakura groaned.

Kaguya pulled her daughter closer, size diminishing until she was approximate high of any other human. “What am I hearing, Sakura?” she asked, sounding oddly detached.

“Madara, you’re wrong. That’s Sakura,” Hashirama called down, hands around his mouth.

“I know my wife when I see her!” Madara roared. He pointed his sword at Kaguya.

“Uh, no, that’s my wife,” Hashirama panicked, nearly dropping his sword again.

‘Oh crap,’ Sakura thought to herself as Kaguya looked back over her shoulder with a new look on her face. The aggression was gone, replaced with something a bit more mischievous. It only compounded Sakura’s dread.

“Sakura, have you been busy during your years in the human world?” she hummed, horns melting into moonlight as her eyes flashed with delight.

“Mom, please, don’t,” she whined, feeling the heat on her face.

“_Mom_?” Madara and Hashirama echoed together.

Kaguya laughed, holding Sakura from around the shoulders and pressing the younger woman’s face into her bosom as her voice rang like bells. “Oh, this truly is a delight. Enough of this now.” She waved her hand and the tree swelled up around their feet to throw them forward. Madara caught himself and landed in a kneeling pose while Hashirama just fell flat on has face in front of her feet. “I think we should talk some things over.”

“Sakura,” Hashirama cried, sounding like there really were tears in his eyes. When he lifted his head there were trails down his cheeks and his nose was red. He looked like he was about to say something else but was cut off.

“First!” Madara interjected, springing up and standing in front of Sakura, putting himself between her and Hashirama. “I married her first, before you, I was her first!”

“Th-that makes it worse, because she still left you to come to me,” Hashirama agued, climbing to his feet. “And how do I know she was even chased out? Maybe she left on her own?”

“I told you all that already, my father-”

“I have a ring!” Hashirama raced to say, holding up his hand with the metal band that matched the one he gave Sakura, the one she made her vow to the Fox Queen with.

“So what? I had a wedding vow with a _priest_!”

“Which was annulled.”

“By my father!”

“Who is the king so it counts!”

Kaguya watched with rapt interest as Sakura’s face only grew hotter and hotter. “They’re like children,” she whispered down to Sakura. “Oh, I think they love you, good job my darling.”

“Mom,” Sakura whined, barely able to manage anything else. “Humans aren’t supposed to have two husbands.”

Kaguya’s smile was full and bright. “You’re not human.”

The queen of the moon court turned her smile to the two bickering men and clapped her hands. At the sound the world around them, tree and foliage, melted into something else resembling a room with chairs and a table spread with food. The chairs pulled themselves away from the table on their own.

Kaguya featured to them, eyeing the two men. “Sit, and let us speak about your claim to my dearest daughter.”

“D-daughter? Oh, yes, of course,” Hashirama bumbled, settling into a seat while Madara lowered himself down as well, watching her the whole time. Sakura still couldn’t meet either of their faces.

“We were married first, that is a fact that can’t be disputed,” Madara cut in suddenly. “I married your daughter and she broke me free from my magic. I’m not leaving here without her. I love her.”

“I love her too, no I love her more, I love her more than anything!” Hashirama rushed to add.

“I don’t doubt that, Sakura’s a lovable girl, changling or not,” Kaguya said, eyeing her daughter before facing the two males. “But should I take it the pair of you broke into my realms with the same agenda, to take back your wife, without knowing your wives were the same person?”

“Pretty much,” Hashirama said.

Kaguya burst out in laughter and Sakura dropped her head to the table, knowing it was redder than red. She didn’t want to face any of them, not Madara with his piercing stare, Hashirama with his watery eyes, or Kaguya with her mirthful smile.

“What an accomplishment, Sakura.”

“Please, don’t tease me, mother.”

“Yeah, excuse me with something,” Madara interjected, looking between Kaguya and Sakura. “Is it normal for human changelings and the…the abducting fae to be so close?”

Kaguya’s mouth turned down. “Sakura was not _abducted_, she was abandoned in my woods, soaked in chicken blood for the wolves. She is my daughter.”

“It’s not normal,” Sakura whispered, lifting her head just enough. “It’s rare. Considering the stories you must have heard, it’s understandable to be surprised.”

Kaguya pouted. “What stories?”

Sakura shrugged. “You know all the people who try to kill themselves or almost die in your woods? The people of Hupperduke think you steal them away to eat. Most changelings aren’t well liked either because humans think they’re tricksters, helping the fae entice men and woman.”

“I knew that much,” Kaguya huffed, sounding annoyed. “Humans are foolish. I regret the slander you suffered, my dear. I’ll never understand what you seek in them.”

“It’s where I came from.”

“It’s what you left. The woman doesn’t seek to climb back into the cradle, or the man into the womb of his mother, do they?” Kaguya asked, sounding as wise as ever before she turned to face the men with a stern expression. “Regardless, that is all beside the point. Sakura is my daughter. What were your intentions with her?”

“To take her back,” Madara said.

“To take my wife back,” Hashirama said at the same time.

“Oh, you don’t see how that might be a problem?” she asked. “Sakura hasn’t told me everything about her time in the human lands, but I’m sure she would have mentioned getting married and sharing vows if they were really so important.”

Hashirama turned first to face Sakura, leaning as far across the table as he could without standing to climb up. He reached with his hand but was just shy of contact. “It’s my fault for failing you, Sakura. I’m so sorry for what you must have endured. I want to take care of you, if not in Carter Hall than anywhere you wish. I owe you my life and you have my heart. Say the word and I’ll spirit you off to the ends of the earth, or bid me and I will be made silent forevermore on this subject. I only wish-my only wish is for your happiness.”

Madara stood from his seat but didn’t reach for her. She could still feel the heat from his stare all the way across the table. “I have traveled across the known kingdoms, I have toiled countless days in order to find you, chased down shadows as well as rumors for the chance to be here. I-” Sakura recognized the way his eyes widened, full with fear as he forced his words out. “I know that you may not even want me after being chased out, after seeing what I was, but I still can’t give up. I want you to know that I do love you. Nothing else matters. Please, consider me. I’ll do whatever I need to in order to win you over.”

Sakura felt like melting under their gazes. She couldn’t face Madara’s eyes so full of fear, or stand Hashirama’s voice when it broke with want. She didn’t know what to do with their affections. She had never believed herself capable of being so loved. She was a changing, a reject, a cast off…she hadn’t thought she would ever marry, but rather end up like Chiyo the spider, old and wrinkled and alone among the fae.

Did she love either of them back? Maybe? What did that even feel like, let alone look like? As old and mature as she was supposed to be, she hadn’t the first clue when it came to love.

She didn’t doubt that they both cared for her, the fact they were in her home realm at a table with Kaguya was proof enough, but once Madara got to know her he would regret it, once Hashirama saw her fail at his expectations he would regret it too.

But was that enough of a reason to give him on the idea-the possibility that she might be happy with one of them? If she was being honest with herself she’d admit that she’d dreamed of her own happily ever after.

“I’m not sure any of us understand the gravity right now, or what we’re even talking about,” Sakura said, picking up her head. “Neither of you know who I really am. I’ve kept a lot of stuff to myself and I can be annoying. I probably have habits that irritate you. I doubt I could make either of you happy.”

“Am I displeasing to you?” Madara asked.

Sakura gave up on trying to hide her blush. “N-no, that’s not it.”

“Then anything else can be worked through. Nothing, not even love, is perfect. It’s something you work through, something you build brick by brick. Don’t expect everything to be perfect right from the start.”

“And don’t expect that annoying habits are enough to sway one’s heart, because we all have them. Everyone on earth has some sort of issue someone else might find annoying. It’s not worth throwing away the whole home just because a few window curtains don’t match,” Hashirama added with a laugh.

“Being a changling is more than just a bad window curtain,” she said, grabbing her elbow to hold and cradle.

“I want you, flaws and all,” Madara vowed.

“Me as well,” Hashirama sighed, smile sad. “I am the same.”

Kaguya reached and took Sakura’s hand off her elbow to hold. “My brave, brave daughter, you’re scared, aren’t you?” she asked.

“I faced down fae queens and dragon wyrms and fought with malicious creatures and monsters alike. I-I’m not scared!”

“It’s okay.” Kaguya leaned closer and kissed Sakura’s forehead. “That doesn’t mean you can’t also be brave. You are my brave, sweet daughter, no matter what, and I would not part with you for anything less. Trust me, I can see how your heart wavers for wanting.”

Kaguya stood and approached Sakura’s chair, standing behind it and growing enough to loom high over it and her daughter. Madara and Hashirama shifted, turning their attentions towards the fae queen, anticipating her next words. 

“My daughter is not wise to the ways of love or courtship. We will proceed formally and with dignity that respects her will or not at all, agreed?”

“Of course!” Hashirama said just as Madara proclaimed a firm, “_Yes_!” 

“Very well, then if you are all agreeable to it, follow me. My courts are better places for such commitments.

The three of them stood to follow the tall queen up the ramp of pale ash bark, circling higher and higher until the tree was more leaves of silver and gray, catching and refracting light into every shade and hue of color.

The further they walked the more fae they encountered. At first they only saw the drunk, but further in some of the revelers cheered for their queen and parted ways. No one paid Sakura or the other two males much mind until the tree leaves parted to reveal a open hall where a high throne grew out of the white wood. At its base a silver basin collected water more sparkling than clear.

“Where are we?” Hashirama asked.

“The throne’s hall,” Sakura whispered back. “It’s not where the best parties are thrown, but oaths and promises are made with the water from the well of beginnings. Such oaths can not be broken.” 

Nearby the banquet halls and dancing floors emptied as more and more fae filtered in to watch and see what transpired. Kaguya didn’t pay them any mind, but approached the basin and waved the other three over to join her.

Out of the corner of her eye Sakura saw Chiyo watching for somewhere on high. Ashura and Indra filed in as well. The brothers bent to whisper with others who had been in the hall before them, likely asking what was going on.

“Come here,” Kaguya called to her and the men. They all approached together and bent in, pretending the rest of the hall wasn’t filled with watching eyes. Kaguya was ignoring them.

“What will you have us do here?” Sakura asked, gut rolling with suspicion.

“You have made fabled vows to these men, as shallow as they were, you still used your words to tie yourself to them. This can not be easily dismissed, not when they come seeking you like this. If you wish to break from their hearts you may, but first you must pay a debt.”

Sakura felt her heart sink. “What is it?”

Kaguya looked over Sakura’s shoulders to where Madara and Hashirama stood. “There are four seasons and two suitors. Each season you will spend with one, a total of two each, until the year is up and you will all be called back here to proclaim your intentions. In their seasons your suitors may take you where they wish, and you must follow until your days are done.”

“You won’t make her choose?” Hashirama asked.

“That is up to Sakura at the end of the year,” Kaguya answer. “After she knows her heart better, she may make her decision.”

“A whole year? But if I wanted to travel more…?” Sakura let her words trail off.

“It wouldn’t be for me to permit it. You made these vows on your own, and now you must face their consequences. It is not fair only your men should suffer for it.”

Sakura knew that. She hated how things had turned out for both of the men. She hadn’t meant to trick them, and never would have guessed things turned out as messy as they had. When she married Madara and vowed herself to Hashirama, she hadn’t thought of the consequences, but that didn’t mean there shouldn’t be any.

She forced herself to swallow and nod. “I understand.”

Behind her, Madara and Hashirama shared a look.

“I don’t want to have to duel you for her, my friend,” Hashirama sighed. “I truly did only wish for your happiness before we knew we shared more than just our struggles. I will submit to this.”

Madara nodded stiffly. “As will I.” He glanced to Sakura and lowered his face as well as his voice before adding, “I have no desire for an unwilling wife to force my love onto.”

“During your season you may go and do as you please, and Sakura will follow if that is your wish. You may not force yourselves on her or bind, constrain, or abuse her in any way. She will follow but is compelled to do no more. The first season will go to Madara, as he was her wedded first, then Hashirama, then Madara again, and then finally Hashirama. At the end of her year, Sakura may be permitted to chose one or neither or both. Do you agree?”

“Yes,” they said as one.

Kaguya turned to Sakura.

“Yes,” she echoed, swallowing her pride.

Kaguya tipped the basin and Sakura drank, then Madara, then Hashirama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoyed writing about the boys bonding over their runaway wife waaaaay too much. It was a riot to write.  
One more chapter after this! I split up the last chapter because it was huge.


	4. Final : Changling - Tam Lin - Lindworm

Madara didn’t take her back to the castle he had been trapped in, the one with his father, the one she had fled from. Instead he took her to a military outpost that was largely abandoned but still in operation with a skeleton force of two maids, a cook, and a small squad of about fifteen men who trained and patrolled as needed.

Sakura was nervous about the arrangement and what it would be like, more so for Madara than Hashirama because she had never lived with Madara, and only known him as the human he was for less than a day.

But Madara was the paragon of a perfect gentleman, preferring her in everything and spoiling her to the point of exhaustion. He didn’t ask anything more from her, but did make it a point to spend as much of his time with her as possible, and learn more about her during their first three months.

One morning she woke before the dawn and donned her armor from the foot of her bed before she knew what she was doing. She was halfway done before she realized what a foolish thing it was to get up and dress for danger when she had never been more safe and protected in her life. Still, she had spent years on the road, sleeping in unfamiliar bed and ditches. She still had the instinct to protect herself when she woke in an unfamiliar place.

Sakura groaned and pawed at the leather straps to her gauntlets. With the adrenaline fading her movements turned sloppy and loud, making her wince as the metal pieces fell against each other in the chest. It was still dark out, and even if her wing was private, she wanted to be mindful of the others who might hear her moving.

She reached down to set the gauntlets inside her breastplate in the chest when there was a knock at the door. She froze, hair standing on end until he called to her through the wood.

“Sakura?”

“Yeah, it-sorry,” she groaned.

Rubbing her face, Sakura crossed the room and opened the door for him so he could see her, standing with the lower half of her figure donned in enchanted armor. It made him frown.

“Is something the matter?” he asked, watching her face for a sign.

He stood in the hallway with a long robe trailing behind him, left hanging open. Madara didn’t sleep with a shirt and his sleeping trousers hung low on his hips. Sakura forced her eyes off the lines of his proud figure, swallowing.

“I just woke up funny. I-it’s an old habit to don my armor when I wake up in a new place I’m not familiar with. I guess I was more out of it than usual. Sorry if I woke you.”

Madara lifted a book and shook his head. “I was already awake, pacing the halls like a nervous ghost. Don’t apologize.” He glanced past her into the bedroom and saw the mess of her bed. “Were you having a fitful rest? Is there something I might be able to remedy with a firmer bed, more pillows or-”

Sakura interrupted his words with a laugh. His eyes, already soft at the sight of her, softened even more at the sound of her laughter. It was a sound he would forever be beholden to.

“No, that’s not it. I’ll be fine after a few more weeks. It’s-sometimes it can take a while, and I’m sure I was having a stupid dream, not that I can remember any of it.” Sakura rolled her shoulders and then nodded to his book. “What were you reading?”

“Just something trivial. Biographies. Honestly I hoped it would lull me to sleep. I’ve been too restless. It’s no fault but my own. It’s a habit to be awake at night and sleep through the day.” His shook his head and the full mane of his hair was unbound to fall over his shoulders. “But I need not do that anymore. You saw to that.”

“When you were the lindworm,” Sakura said, smiling. “Your father had you hide away during the day, but you didn’t always do what he told you, did you?”

Madara started at her knowing smile. “How did you guess that?”

“I knew when you were awake, and when you watched me I could tell.” Sakura tapped the side of her head. “Danger sense is keen from years in my mother’s courts. Anytime something stalks me in the wild I know it in my bones.”

“I-I wasn’t stalking you!” Madara sputtered. “I simply observed.”

“You observed for a good long while then,” Sakura laughed. “I remember planting the seeds in the garden for plants that were almost ready to harvest, and your eyes followed me from seed to sprout.”

“Please consider there was precious little to watch that was worth my attention.”

Sakura felt her lips dry and licked them. “Why did you watch me?”

“Firstly, you didn’t fawn over Sasuke or Itachi…you were actually pretty dense with Itachi considering how often he came out to ‘observe’ your progress. Figures, the thing I teased him for in my head ended up being my own cross to bear.”

Sakura frowned. “What are you talking about. I don’t remember Itachi coming out except once or twice since I came to the castle, not including the incident with the wild horse.”

“Like I said,” Madara teased, hand lifted to poke her forehead,“dense!”

Sakura staggered under the jab but pouted and righted herself. “I’m not dense. I noticed you, didn’t I?”

“Observant and dense are not mutually exclusive. You’re a keen warrior but a poor lover.”

Sakura felt her face flush scarlet. It made him smile. It wasn’t a smirk or a cocky grin, but a real smile. Sakura could tell because it reached his eyes and made them soft.

Madara reached across the door’s threshold and touched the side of her face, running the back of his fingers over the skin of her cheek. She let him, too stone still to react until her blush cooled.

“I’m patient,” Madara whispered. “I don’t mind that you don’t notice it at first. I’ll be here, for the day or the night you realize it. I’ll be here confessing it with every dawn, I love you Sakura.”

Sakura couldn’t speak. Her throat was full of cotton and she needed to swallow but she was too hot all down to her toes. She didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a master she could raise her sword to, but he frightened her more than any beast with just a few words.

“You know I fancied you before our wedding? I watched you, yes, that’s true. You were such a delight to follow from my prison tower. What a confident woman, so strong and sure, unmoved by the charms of my brothers, or the dangers of a far off world. I had fantasies of speaking with you, thinking you would be the one person not disturbed by my monstrous hide.”

Sakura manage to make her words out of the floundering vibrations in her throat. “Oh…re-really?”

Madara chuckled at her nervousness. “Yes. I thought you would be a fun friend to make. I didn’t have friends. But you were also so beautiful, I started to dream about kissing this girl that wasn’t even my friend once Iruka told me father had nominated you to be my bride. It’s funny, I never felt like that about anything or anyone before. I had not the mind of a man. All the other women brought before me were meat and food and I never dreamed about kissing any of them. Why would I? I hadn’t a human mouth for it.”

“Then why me?” Sakura wasn’t sure how she managed it, but she forced the words out and they didn’t even warble. She almost sounded confident. Almost.

“Maybe I saw you as an equal and not a snack. You were so fearless, how could I not?”

“What an honor,” Sakura laughed, and this time her voice did warble a tad, but Madara didn’t seem to mind or notice. “You didn’t want to eat me.”

A shadow spread across his features as Madara turned his face down. Outside the dawn was breaking, but the sun’s light was still folded under the hills. “No, I was still a monster and-I’ll not pretend I was always something romantic. I don’t blame you for running.”

Sakura felt uncomfortable in her smile. “What? No, wait, that’s not what I meant. It wasn’t because of you.”

Madara forced a smile but it didn’t reach his eyes.

Sakura felt a new sort of panic in her heart. “I was marked,” Sakura blurted out, touching the handprint on her chest, where Kaguya had touched her, a mark that warned others from hurting family of the moon fae. For all her life, the humans had seen that mark as something disgusting.

“You weren’t a monster anymore, and you-you were a prince so-it didn’t make sense for a changing to stay. I couldn’t be anything respectable.”

Madara had never been angry with her, even though she knew he could have a temper when provoked to it after his long patience was worn out. But he looked up at her sharply and she felt his anger. It made her shrink and her hair stand up.

“I do not tolerate it when others speak so ill of you, not my father, or my brothers, not the help, not the guard, and not even you. You will not disparage the woman I love. She is more than respectable.” Madara touched her chin. “She is everything to me. I know a thing about self loathing, but you shouldn’t.” Something broke in his voice that made his eyes glassy. “You need to love yourself a little more, because the world doesn’t matter, I do.”

“I thought you said you were a monster.”

Madara chuckled, rubbing his thumb up over her chin, pushing up her bottom lip. “Monsters always matter, almost as much as the things they love.”

He pulled her head closer and brushed a kiss into her hair and then stepped back, releasing her. “It is nearly dawn, but sleep if you can. We can dine a late breakfast together.”

“You plan on sleeping?”

Madara shook his head and then knocked his knuckles on his book. “Not today, but I’ll be waiting for you, no matter the day or hour. Seek me when you’re hungry. I promise not to bite.”

Before she could reply he leaned over to grab her door and eased it closed. Moments later she heard his footsteps down the hall.

And Sakura did doze lightly in an armchair before finding him later for breakfast, like she did often enough during the days after.

Sometimes they talked about things new, sometimes they talked about things old. Often times they didn’t talk at all, but worked alongside each other on hunts and patrols. He sparred with her and trained with her when she wished it, and they began to learn the sense of each other without sight or sound-to the point when Sakura knew Madara was near before she saw or heard him.

When the date of departure grew closer his mood fell more and more downcast, and he admitted one night when she found him hiding in the stables, that he was afraid he had failed. It turned into the first conversation they had about Hashirama apart from her stories of her stay there.

“You admire him?” Sakura guessed.

“I suppose so, but I still think I’m the better choice,” he admitted into his arms as he laid them, crossed over his knees as they were.

“I’ve never been with a man before, and I’m not sure it is something I can admit to honestly desiring, but…” Sakura reached out and touched the end of his shirt, grabbing it like a child might as she turned her flushed face away. “But I did enjoy my time with you.”

After her time was up Madara took his forces to join a larger group and go reinforce the boarders of Uchiha lands where drought-mad enemies terrorized the peace of his people. He claimed he needed something important to distract him from how long it would be before he could see her again. He didn’t cry, but kissed her hair and swore into it that he would come back for her when his three months of waiting were up.

* * *

Hashirama brought her back to Carter Hall and every animal was glad for her return. If Sakura were honest, she’d admit it was the closest feeling to being welcomed home second to only when she fell back into Kaguya’s arms.

Hashirama went out of his way to make her feel welcomed and at home. It wasn’t much different than the first time she ended up staying in Hashirama’s home. The greatest difference were her conversations about Madara and her mother. Hashirama wanted to know everything about her. He never seems to run out of things to say or ask her.

It didn’t matter where they were, and sometimes, (oftentimes) he found her between the trees, sitting in the shadows and listening to the tiny heartbeats of creatures both far and near. Often he would sit beside her and listen along, but it never lasted. Before long he would scoot closer, nudge her knee with his, and smile bright whenever she cracked open an eye to see him there.

“I admire you a great deal,” he admitted to her one twilight, just as the sun started to sink and bleed bright new colors. The clouds all took on a new shade.

Sakura sighed. “What for this time? Yesterday you admired my decision to braid my hair. The day before you praised me for my shoe choices.”

“Something more drastic.”

She couldn’t help it, Sakura snickered and then hid the sound behind the back of her hand. “Oh well, I suppose I need to know it now. Tell me. I bid you speak your truth, good sir.”

“I think you’re right, that marriage is a big responsibility and shouldn’t be entered into lightly. I’m glad you are taking this time to figure out your heart,” he admitted to her. “But I’ll always hope for our future together. I wouldn’t want to share it with anyone but you.”

“Oh.”

She hadn’t been expecting that, but waited for him to continue. It felt like he had a lot more to say and only needed the encouragement to say it all.

“Yes, I understand the situation you find yourself in might not seem pleasant, you’re bound to this contact, one season with Madara, and then with me, another with Madara and finally you finish in Carter Hall, hopefully having your mind all made up.”

Sakura swallowed, staring up at the painted clouds, urging them to still in the sky and stop time, if only to keep that day from coming. She feared it more than dragons and deep dwelling monsters with teeth all down their throats. She’d rather slay a lich. 

“You wish to know my mind on the matter?” Sakura guessed.

Hashirama look up sharply, brows creased in concern. “No, I dare not presume. Your mind is your own. I need only know now my own heart and mind, and they are both bent for you.”

Sakura noticed easily that Hashirama was very different from Madara, but there were still veins of similarity that stood out every now and then. When he spoke of her, of his feelings, she heard an echo of Madara.

“You’re so liberal with your sweet words, aren’t you?” she teased.

“Fault me not for it, my dear. It is how I was raised. Do you not enjoy it when I lavish upon you sweet words?”

Sakura felt the smile back on her face. “I’m sure all the other girls would say yes, but I’ll admit at not being very adept at fielding your words.”

“You need more practice, though I can’t admit to seeing this help any other women. My words are yours and only yours. All my sweet thoughts are only for you, Sakura.”

Sakura turned and looked over her shoulder at Hashirama, seeing how the scarlet bleed of light in the sky made the soft brown color of his eyes stand out all the more. 

He had a fair face that would make any fae queen break her neck for another look at it. With his high features and strong jaw, he was the perfect picture for his regal speech and flowery words. But most importantly, his smile was rich and his whole body seemed bent towards her, growing like a flower towards the sun.

“Why me?” she heard herself ask before he knew better.

Hashirama blinked and sat up, scooting closer. “Why did I fall in love with you?” he asked to clarify.

Sakura flushed. “I have to know. Is it because I-is it just because you’re thankful to me for saving your life? Anyone who knew what I knew could have done that.”

“Did you ask the same of Madara?”

Sakura nodded. “I’m not telling you what he told me. You have to come up with an answer on your own.”

Hashirama grinned and it was a sly sort of thing. “What makes you think he didn’t already tell me that when we traveled together?”

Sakura scoffed. “I’m seriously doubtful you had such meaningful conversations if you still didn’t know you were talking about the same woman the entire time you were together.” 

Her words caused him to blush. “It-it didn’t come up. Neither of us wanted to say your name out loud I suppose. It’s poor manners to do so and I didn’t know your family name or crest.”

Sakura rolled her eyes and it was her turn to grin. “Sure. Good excuse.”

“It doesn’t mean we didn’t have meaningful conversations. And that’s beside the point. You asked me how I know I love you.”

Sakura shut her mouth and her lips pressed together as she waited for his answer.

“You did me a great service Sakura, and I will be forever grateful to you. But being grateful is not the same as love. I am grateful to my mother, I do not want to bend her under me and kiss her senseless with every waking moment of my day. I’m grateful to Madara for his aid. There were times he might have saved my life as well on the road, but I don’t want to hold him. I sleep at night and dream of you. I dread the moment I wake for that is when I’m parted from you. I’ve had you stuck in my heart and in my head since you pulled that double rose. Before, when I thought my life was forfeit, I still dared to love you, but in my own privet way.”

Hashirama moved up onto his knees, kneeling. His soft smile was gone and the honey color of his eyes was dark. Sakura felt trapped under his gaze.

“I love you Sakura. I’ve loved you since I knew you.”

Sakura tried to stand but her legs wouldn’t work. She rose a fraction before falling back on her rump against a tree. Hashirama was quick to catch her wrist to keep her from falling further. He hovered over her, shifting so his legs were on either side of her. She could taste her heartbeat in her throat when she looked up. Hashirama’s long curtain of silk brown hair slipped over his shoulders, smooth as a snake, and curtained the pair of them from the sun. All she could see was his face.

“Hashirama,” she breathed, lost as to why she could only say his name.

“Do you doubt my love?” he asked, voice deep and rumbling as he loomed over her.

All Sakura could do was stare up into his eyes, caught like an animal in a trap.

“Here,” he breathed leaning down further. “Let me cast out your doubt.”

With one hand he cradled her face and the other he braced on her hip as his lips found hers and pushed her all the way down into the grass.

Bubbly, cheerful Hashirama, who was always pleasant and often a little naive, was nothing but perfectly confident as he cradled her through their kiss, moving away just when she was at her limit. He kissed her lips once more, only a peck, then pulled away and stood.

Sakura stayed in the grass as the sun set behind the clouds in shades of deep purple and navy blue. She couldn’t say anything even when Hashirama promised he would spend the rest of her stay convincing her he was in love with her. 

But oddly enough, when it drew closer to the time when she would have to leave to go back to Madara, Hashirama admitted his own self depressing thoughts about how much cooler Madara probably seemed and started to waver in his resolve. The cool confident Tam Lin who kissed her into the grass melted into a man of soft anxieties she saw echoed too neatly in Madara. It was funny how Hashirama was the same. 

“He traveled and searched so long and hard to find you, how could that fail to move a maiden’s heart? Even I admire the fellow.”

“You did the same, didn’t you?” she asked, sitting down next to him on a tree branch big enough for the both of them.

“Of course but I was robbed of greater opportunity. Believe me I would have searched for months and years if that’s what it took. Do not think me insincere.”

“I know you would have,” Sakura laughed.

* * *

When it was time to leave Sakura dressed in her armor and left the animals behind. She slipped out before Hashirama could see her, knowing that he had said his goodbyes the night before so well and didn’t wish to ‘ruin his good impression on her’ by crying at the sight of her leaving.

On a far hill a small band of knights in dark iron waited on their mounts. A tent had been pitched for the prince and Sakura headed for it, knowing that each and every one of the solider men and women in his band would recognize her. They all watched her approach, but no one stopped her as reached for his tent’s flap.

He was still asleep on his bed, shirt open and hair a mess. Sakura sat on the edge of his bed and touched his hand, waiting for him to wake. It was dawn outside and the sun turned one side of the tent gold and bright.

Madara stirred and grabbed at her hand before he knew what it was. When he opened his eyes she saw the moment he realized who it was who was in front of him.

“Hey, stranger,” she teased.

His voice was hoarse from sleep when he spoke. “Tell me I’m not dreaming. You’ve been in too many of my dreams.”

She smiled and squeezed his hand again. “It’s me. Happy new season.”

-

Madara welcomed her back with the greatest smile and warmest embrace, taking her hunting and riding almost every day once he figured out how much she actually enjoyed the activities that would make lesser men stagger. Not many could match his stamina, but Sakura did more than just that. Some days, she put him to shame.

He hadn’t touched or asked for any intimacies with her, but when she caught him under the bushes after a long game of something children might have called tag, he couldn’t help himself, and kissed her before she could protest.

“I don’t want to be mistaken,” he breathed, lips hovering over hers. “I want you and I see you as a woman, not just a knight or a hunter, though you are all of those things.”

When he kissed her again she didn’t fight it, but melted into the way he held her.

He always kept her close, but it was more urgent he stay beside her more than before, even though his kisses never crossed the line drawn for married couples.

In his last days he seemed almost frantic to keep her close, sleeping outside her door and taking every meal with her.

Sakura’s heart started to swell as days turned into weeks and weeks into months. She had spent time with both men and knew the she was no longer the same woman who ran away from either of their advances.

Madara had hated parting with her the first time, but the second time was worse, and she wasn’t sure if it was because it was possibly the last of his time with her, or because of how she felt. She felt sick in her heart when she had to watch him ride away with his band to find some other evil in the world to distract himself with. He rode off with his shoulders low and head bent, but he didn’t look back until he was almost out of sight. She hated how he did that. It was so much harder to watch him go.

It was during her fourth and final season, when she moved in with Hashirama again, that she realized something.

Hashirama kissed her under the stars and then rested his lips under her jaw, promising to do whatever she wanted if she asked for it…if she wanted it. She ran off, heart in too much chaos to properly answer. But in the morning when he nearly destroyed a sparring arena born out of his fear of rejection, she went back to him and returned his kiss.

It was then that she realized how terrible of a situation she was stuck in.

In the second to last week she admitted it to Hashirama. “I think I’m in love with Madara, but I’m also in love with you. I couldn’t tell because they felt different, but…I still want to be held by you, kiss you, and be kissed by him too. I-I’m sorry. This whole ordeal only made me more confused. I-I don’t think I can answer you like this.”

Hashirama took it all in stride, kissed the top of her hair, and encouraged her to get a good night’s sleep. Things would always look more clear in the morning’s light of a new day.

In the time before dawn, when morning was still a far off thing, a guest crossed the threshold to Carter Hall.

“You said there was something to discuss,” Madara said as he folded his cloak over his arm.

Hashirama filled his rival in on all he had been told and all he knew, keeping his friend in a far wing Sakura never gravitated towards without reason. He also shared a proposition of his own.

“Yes,” Madara said at last.“I am willing to endorse your plan. Would it be here, on your lands or elsewhere on neutral grounds?”

“I’d want it to be here. Unless you prefer other places,” Hashirama answered, tone soft and thin. “You will always be welcome here, Madara. You love my love, but you are also my friend. I would want to share my home if you are willing.”

Madara shook his head. “No, I like it here. Sakura told me stories, and I can see what she meant when she said there is a peace here that you can open your mouth and taste. It’s…far more tranquil than the fortress. I’d rather it be here.”

Hashirama beamed at the praise. “I am glad for that. I can’t help but see you as some sort of brother. You’re a close friend of mine, in spite of everything that developed later on.”

“I am loathed to admit it, but I’ll say the feeling it mutual.” Madara didn’t meet Hashirama’s eyes. “I don’t consider myself close with many others, not even my brothers. They might as well be strangers to me.”

“I had brothers once, but they’re all dead or old and gray,” Hashirama admitted. “I miss them.”

Madara only hummed in acknowledgment, but the silence between them was peaceful and full.

It was late in the afternoon when Sakura eventually found them. She found Hashirama first and started to tease him until she saw Madara in a seat reading. Her words died in her throat at the sight of him and it wasn’t long before he met her stare with his own. Madara’s ruby colored eyes softened at the sight of her.

“I invited a friend. Do you mind?” Hashirama asked.

“Is that allowed?”

“It is if I am the one who invites him over, but if you’re uncomfortable with it…”

Madara stood quickly. “I would excuse myself if you wished it,” he cut in before Hashirama’s words could hang awkwardly between them.

“No,” Sakura whispered, glancing from one man to the other. “I’m not the one who would mind it. Please stay as long as you wish.”

So he did.

The last of the days started to roll closer and closer but Sakura was no closer to her answer as something else became abundantly clear.

She was in love. She loved Madara who went soft for her songs when, to the rest of the world, he was a hard exterior that couldn’t be moved. She loved sweet and gentle Hashirama, who didn’t have the heart in him to antagonize a conflict with anyone, even if sometimes that meant he was taken advantage of. 

She was in love with both of them and in less than a weeks time she would have to break one of their hearts along with half of her own.

“You are despairing,” Hashirama guessed first when she couldn’t make it down to the morning breakfast room. He found her hallway up the hallway on a bench holding her elbows and hunching forward.

She looked up and saw the moment he recognized the look on her face. It was the face of a woman who had skipped a night’s worth of sleep and was barely half awake.

“You’ve made up your mind, have you?” he guessed in a whisper.

“I-no, that’s not it,” she whispered back, voice strained.

“Then what is it?” He knelt beside her. “Were we unable to win your heart? Are you worried that you might not feel strongly enough to choose either of us?”

“Wh-why would you say that?” his question made her sit up straighter in her seat.

“You’re torn, but you…already know what is in your heart. I have a sense of these things. I’m so sorry to see you in agony over this. It’s painful, isn’t it?”

“It is terrible,” she agreed. “I almost regret the meetings and all of this, but that would mean denying what I have already acknowledged to myself.”

“What is that?”

“I can’t make a decision at the end of the year’s time.”

Hashirama was still for too many seconds of awkward silence before he finally leaned forward to touch her hand. “Why is that Sakura? Tell me, speak so that I may understand your mind.”

“I love you,” she whispered, screwing her eyes shut. “But I love Madara too. I didn’t think I would, I thought I’d last the whole year and not care at all but…but I did and I do and-and now… now I’m going to have to hurt one of you or both of you and I don’t want to do it.”

“Then don’t.”

She felt the tears on her face. “I can’t hurt you-either of you, but I _have_ to. I-we all made that vow together to see this through. I can’t break her law.”

Hashirama grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. “Then don’t! Don’t choose one over the other.” 

She couldn’t understand what he was asking of her. “You don’t make any sense,” she breathed, sagging against his chest. She only shivered when she felt a new hand curl around her waist. She turned and saw Madara there. He leaned down and kissed under her eye, wetting his lips with her tears.

“Enough of that now,” he whispered.

Madara pulled her back into his arms and Hashirama held her hand as she was carried back to bed. She felt them tuck her back in, even as she protested. She had so little time left, she didn’t want to have to be alone.

Hashirama pulled back the covers and reached for her, tugging her until she fit int the curve of his body when he laid down beside her. Then he looked up over her head at Madara and waved him down. Sakura watched as the dark haired Uchiha begrudgingly pulled back the covers and slid in without his boots, crawling over until he was close enough to grab her hands and kiss at her knuckles.

“Sleep my love,” Madara implored. “We won’t leave you here.”

“Neither of you?”

Hashirama chuckled behind her, kissing the back of her neck. “Never.”

* * *

The week ended and one morning Kaguya was there, at the foot of their bed, smiling slyly to herself as she waited for any of the three sleeping figures to wake and notice her presence.

“I don’t think there is any need for a formal verdict. She’s made up her mind,” Kaguya chuckled.

Sakura stirred slightly in her sleep and Madara echoed her noise, pawing at the sheets until he found her bare shoulder to cradle. Hasharama already had a handful of her hair pulled close to his face and another hand slipped somewhere low under the covers, out of sight.

Kaguya knew well enough what had happened to her daughter, and she wasn’t exactly surprised. Her daughter was a fine enough woman that she could handle a couple of husbands as well as the stories their seer had said she could. 

When Kaguya had heard the prophecy she had suspected it spoke of Ashura and Indra, and maybe in another world it might have happened that way, but a Tam Lin and a Lindworm were in no way lesser creatures for her dearest changing daughter to couple with. They _loved_ her, that much was clear.

Poor Sakura looked exhausted. They must have run her ragged.

To end their formal contract, Kaguya leaned over her daughter and blessed Sakura with a whisper, then tapped both Hashirama and Madara.

When they woke in the morning they would find their binding marks, burned with magic, into the skin of their left ring finger. The symbol was of a great black serpent circling a silver tree with a green star in its branches. 

And that’s how their story lapsed into legend, fading into obscurity.

Stories are deeply in love with tragedy, and for as long as the trivium of heroes lived together, they survived each and every ill in their life, simply by virtue of their love. There is no great story there. They simply loved, and were loved, until the end of their many days.

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 : LIndworm  
Part 2: Tam Lin  
Part 3: Changling 1 & 2


End file.
